WASHINGTON – Excelsior Springs last week reported an enrollment decrease, which is occurring nationally.

U.S. school enrollment dropped by 2.9 million from 2019 to 2020. Enrollment among the under-35 population dipped to its lowest level – 52.4% of the total population – in more than 20 years, based on data tables released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The bureau’s tables examined school enrollment at all levels during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, based on statistics from the bureau’s Current Population Survey.

PRESCHOOL

The percentage of children ages 3 and 4 enrolled in school fell from 54% in 2019 to 40% in 2020, the first time since 1996 that fewer than half of the children in this age group were enrolled. The number of 3- and 4-year-old children of working mothers enrolled in nursery school fell 35% from 2019 to 2020, compared with a 10% drop of other enrolled 3- and 4-year-olds. The overall decrease was 26%.

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY

The estimated distribution of K-12 enrollment …