October was the month we started to better understand how the 2020 pivot to remote instruction, and the subsequent fight to keep classrooms open amid COVID and the Delta variant, reshaped public school enrollment across the country. Also buried in this attendance conversation was a surprising trend: Even as campuses have reopened, an alarming number of students have been marked “chronically absent.” All of which raises concerns about extended COVID learning losses that will only compound this month’s findings from the nation’s report card — that student performance was declining at a historic pace even before the pandemic.

It was a busy month here at The 74, covering schools and students amid the crisis. Here were our 11 most shared and circulated reports:

Enrollment: With the release of new data in recent months, a much clearer picture is emerging of how K-12 enrollment responded to the pandemic. First, a working paper released in August drew a direct line between the reopening choices districts made at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year and families’ education decisions, showing that hundreds of thousands of students left schools that offered remote-only instruction. The findings echo those of other publications, which have pointed to huge enrollment drops from traditional public schools — heavily concentrated in kindergarten and the earliest grades — alongside surges in homeschooling, private schooling and charters. What’s more, the early indicators from several districts suggest that enrollment isn’t bouncing back to the pre-pandemic status quo. Read Kevin Mahnken’s new report.

Read the full article about enrollment and the pandemic at The 74.