New York is losing its families, and its own enrollment report proves it

New York City is losing its families, and Comptroller Mark Levine said why on Oct. 29: "the drop in enrollment is driven by declining births and families with children leaving NYC¹."

His office's report, "Tracking the K-12 Student Population in NYC," finds that K-12 enrollment in city public schools fell 19%, nearly 187,000 students, from 2013-14 to 2025-26. The latest school year took another 21,793 students, a 3% drop and the steepest since the pandemic. The School Construction Authority projects 128,000 fewer students still by 2034-35². Who will be raising children in this city by then?

“the drop in enrollment is driven by declining births and families with children leaving NYC”

Fewer births and departing families are a family-formation crisis, and Levine says so himself. Declining enrollment, he said, "raises fundamental questions about affordability, the ability of young families to build a future in New York³."

128,000

The report shows what that means for the households that stay: nearly three in four public-school students are estimated to fall under its threshold of economic hardship. It records 135,000 students, 14% of the student body, as experiencing housing insecurity, which it says "underscores both the affordability challenges facing New York City families²."

More money into the system is not the missing ingredient. The New York Post reports that the city Department of Education "spends $44,000 per student — more than any large school district in the country⁴." Families are leaving anyway.

The grade-by-grade numbers show the loss starting with the youngest children. Levine said New York "used to enroll almost 78k students in kindergarten each year. Last year that figure was down to just over 52k⁵."

The loss continues as children grow. The report says "families have appeared to leave the city as their children get older, with the steepest enrollment drop off occurring between the 5th and 6th grades³."

Nor can school switching explain it. The comptroller found that the overall decline "can't be explained by students shifting to charter schools, private schools, or homeschooling³." The combined K-12 population in public, private and charter schools fell by 81,506 from 2020-21 to 2025-26². Where did those children go, if not to another school?

The Mamdani administration has an answer. A spokesperson for Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the administration "was addressing the affordability crisis to keep families in the city by launching a universal 2-K program⁴." Samuels prefers consolidation plans that come from communities, and he launched working groups in five districts⁶.

A program for two-year-olds does nothing for the parent deciding whether to stay through sixth grade. The kindergarten collapse and the fifth-to-sixth-grade drop-off happen after 2-K ends. Chalkbeat reports that "nearly a year into his administration, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has not shared a vision for addressing many of the pressing challenges facing the New York City school system." What the city has kept doing is the "hold harmless" policy that holds school budgets steady as enrollment falls; every mayor since Bill de Blasio, Mamdani included, has continued it, "spending a total of almost $2 billion⁶."

Parents are already choosing. The comptroller counts 13,079 homeschooled students in New York City in 2025-26, a fourfold increase since 2015-16. Charter enrollment rose by 11,287 over the same five years that the combined population shrank².

City Hall should put family affordability first: housing, cost of living and a city where a couple can afford a second child and a sixth-grader. It should give parents real choices about where and how their children are educated, instead of funding a shrinking system. Mayor Mamdani and Chancellor Samuels owe New York families answers that need a yes or no. Will the administration name a plan to keep families through kindergarten and middle school? Will it let parents choose the school that gets their child's education dollars?

Families need a city where they can afford to raise children and choose the schools their children attend.

Sources

1. @MarkLevineNYC on X, 2026-10-29: Today my office has released a major new report on student enrollment in NYC. We found that k-12 enrollment in our public schools has fallen by 187k since 2013, with a projected decline of an additional 128k students by 2034. As total enrollment declines, N, 2026-10-29
2. Tracking the K-12 Student Population in NYC - Office of the New York City Comptroller
3. Comptroller Levine Releases New Report Showing Scale of NYC’s Declining Public School Population - Office of the New York City Comptroller
4. NYC public school enrollment plummeting at alarming rate — even with spending on the rise
5. @MarkLevineNYC on X, 2026-10-29: Looking at enrollment year-by-year and grade-by-grade reveals some striking trends. NYC used to enroll almost 78k students in kindergarten each year. Last year that figure was down to just over 52k. We are seeing a notable enrollment fall-off in the transit, 2026-10-29
6. Mamdani faces tough choices on closures and mergers amid NYC enrollment drops - Chalkbeat