on WNYC now we'll dive into some shifting demographics in New York City's public

schools ahead of the new school year. Chalkbeat New York, the news organization that covers

education, took a look at the data and found that for

the first time in eight years, student enrollment in New York City public schools did not

go down year over year. In fact, it went up slightly. This shift is not just in numbers, but also in the

composition of the student body. There are more migrant students from Latin America and West Africa,

not surprisingly, and more students who are English

language learners.

More on these demographic shifts and their implications with Michael Elson Rooney, a reporter

for Chalkbeat New York now.

The headline for his story, as it's found on Chalkbeat's website,

has another demographic shift contained in it, shifting New York City school demographics.

There are nearly as many Asian American as black students.

Hey Michael, welcome back to WNYC. Hey Brian, great to be here. So for the first time in

eight years, eight years, school enrollment did not go down.

How many students are enrolled for 2024-25 if you know that number and how big an increase

are we talking about?

Yeah, so we have the data from this past school year.

So the final enrollment count for, you know, 3K through 12 schools, not including charters, was about 912,000

students, which is up about 6,000 from the previous school year.

And as you said, it is, you know, the first time

in a long time that enrollment hasn't gone down.

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