Wisconsin school enrollment

By the numbers

Enrollment headcounts of children receiving a publicly funded education in Wisconsin this school year continued the trends of the past 20 years — and as of this school year, the number of children receiving their education in a traditional district-run public school has fallen below 800,000 for the first time in decades.

Meanwhile, the number of children attending an independent school through one of Wisconsin’s parental school choice programs rose by 3,800 to more than 58,600.

As of the headcount done in all Wisconsin schools on the third Friday in September, from 3-year-old kindergartners to 12^th-graders, there were:

• 791,891 students in traditional district-run public schools, including charter schools run by districts.
• 12,880 students in independent public charter schools.
• 58,623 students in private schools thanks to school choice grants.

Of the school choice students:

• 29,732 were in the city of Milwaukee.
• 4,185 were in the Racine program, covering students living in Racine County east of I-94.
• 21,638 were in all other parts of Wisconsin.
• 3,068 were special-needs children.

Overall, there has been a drop of 2.9%, or 26,000 students, in children receiving any sort of publicly funded K-12 education in Wisconsin over the past two decades, since 2004.  

But those numbers mask differing trends in each sector. Since 2004…

• 8.9% fewer, 77,720 students, attend traditional district schools.
• 193% more, 8,083 students, attend independent charter schools.
• 290% more, 43,588 students, attend private schools using a school choice grant.

In just one year, since the 2023 headcount, enrollment in traditional district public schools fell by 1%. The figure has fallen every year since 2013. Independent charters saw a one-year increase of 6% in headcount in 2024, while private schools saw a 6.9% one-year increase in the number of students using choice grants.