Enrollment in the city’s public schools fell by nearly 2% this school year — with city schools losing about 17,000 students in the first year that classrooms have been fully reopened with no remote option since the pandemic began.

The total enrollment in non-charter public schools is 938,000, according to new data from the city — down 1.9% from about 960,000 students on school registers last year.

Still, this year’s enrollment drop is considerably smaller than last year’s — when the public school population declined by about 4.7%. Enrollment has declined in the school system every year since 2016 — by between half a percentage point and two points — but last year’s drop, which came as schools were providing students with a mix of in-person and online learning, was unusually large.

“From day one of this pandemic our school leaders and educators met the needs of New York City students at every turn, and we’re supporting schools with unprecedented investments and holding them harmless for enrollment shifts this year," DOE spokeswoman Katie O'Hanlon said in a statement. "As the nation’s largest school district we’ve been impacted by the nationwide enrollment fluctuation that impacted schools across the country, and this data shows enrollment is stabilizing as we continue our City’s incredible recovery.”

Elected officials had been demanding the city release the enrollment numbers — or at least the number of students attending schools each day — for the last several weeks, amid questions over whether the pandemic and the city’s response to it had driven parents to leave the system. 

Some advocates of remote learning had predicted parents would leave for schools that offered a virtual option. And other advocates of returning to a fully normal classroom warned families would leave for systems without mask mandates or strict quarantine rules. But the figures show an exodus less than half the size of last year’s.

Individual school funding has historically been tied to the number of students enrolled, but, continuing a policy that began after parent outcry last year, the Education Department says they will not cut funding to schools whose populations shrunk this year.

The average school attendance across the city has been 89% — that’s below the ninety-one-point-six percent five year average from before the pandemic. Some parents who want a remote option have kept their children home without un-enrolling them — but it’s unclear how many are still doing so. The DOE says they have not moved to un-enroll those children.

Earlier this year Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said the city would work with families who were afraid to send their children to school, but that Administration for Children’s Services could get involved in cases of educational neglect.