Dusseault, B., & Michel-Herf, N. (2022). Shifting Students: Pandemic-Era Enrollment Changes Present Challenges and Opportunities for Washington's Public Charters. Center on Reinventing Public Education.
As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools across the country in 2020, Washington state's emergent charter sector was growing. During this time, charter enrollment was growing by 28% each year, on average, and the number of schools in operation doubled from eight to 16. The new schools that opened were planned long before the pandemic. But even preexisting charter schools grew between 2020 and 2022, suggesting that more families opted into charter schools, possibly due to dissatisfaction with remote learning offerings in district schools. However, charter schools' rate of growth in 2021-22 has tapered slightly: two Center on Reinventing Public Education studies of Washington charter enrollment found that charter schools' growth outpaced that of their corresponding districts the first year of the pandemic but fell slightly short of their districts' growth in the second year. Heading into the 2022-23 school year, Washington charter schools are at a pivotal point in their development. Like all schools across the country, they must come up with new solutions to accelerate student learning, authentically engage families and communities, and provide a learning environment that heals and supports the well-being of both students and staff. This report offers some suggested courses of action for charter operators to harness opportunities in 2022-23.