In this series: Delaware 2024-25 Enrollment.

A year ago, Delaware public schools enrolled 149,324 students, up for the eighth time in nine years. Administrators talked about the state as a bright spot, one of the few places in the country where enrollment kept climbing after the pandemic. The COVID dip had been erased in a single year. Growth was the expectation.

Then the Delaware Department of Education released its annual unit count report, and the expectation held: 150,591 students, another all-time high. But beneath the headline number, the geography of that growth has shifted in ways that will reshape Delaware public education for a generation. Whatever stability people assumed was evenly distributed was not evenly distributed at all.

What the numbers open up

The enrollment data covers 19 traditional districts, three countywide vocational-technical districts, and more than 20 charter schools. Over the coming weeks, The DEEdTribune will unpack it in a series of data-driven articles. Here is what jumps out first.

The state is growing, but not where you think. Delaware added 11,546 students over the past decade, an 8.3% increase. But two-thirds of that growth came from just three districts in the southern half of the state. Appoquinimink^↗ added 3,867 students, Cape Henlopen^↗ added 2,217, and Indian River added 1,787. Meanwhile, the four districts sharing Wilmington lost 6,476 students combined.

Three in four districts are now majority-minority. A decade ago, 40% of Delaware districts enrolled a majority of non-white students. Today, 76% do. White enrollment fell 12.7% statewide while Hispanic enrollment grew 42.1%.

Special education rates are seven points above the national average. One in four Christina^↗ students receives special education services. Statewide, the rate hit 22%, the highest in at least a decade and well above the national average of roughly 15%.

By the numbers: 150,591 students statewide in 2024-25 — up 1,267 from the prior year, a 0.8% increase and an all-time high.

The threads we are following

Christina lost 4,006 students. The state grew by 11,546. The state's second-largest district has shrunk 21.8% since 2014-15, falling further behind Red Clay^↗, the state's largest, and now faces a merger study from the Redding Consortium.

Charter enrollment is approaching 10%. Delaware's charter sector grew from 6.3% to 10.0% of statewide enrollment over the decade. Odyssey Charter School, the only full Greek language immersion program in the country, accounts for 2,375 of those students.

Delaware lost one year to COVID, then set a record. The state's pandemic dip was just 1,316 students, and the 2021-22 rebound of 3,181 students not only erased the loss but pushed enrollment above its pre-COVID trajectory. Only a handful of states can say the same.

What comes next

This is the first in a series of articles examining what the 2024-25 enrollment data reveals about Delaware public schools. New articles publish weekly on Wednesdays.

The enrollment figures come from the DDOE Annual Enrollment Unit Count. The data covers headcount enrollment for public school districts statewide.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.