Lawrence school board members and district administrators are looking at a declining birth rate, an ever-increasing cost of living and a shortage of housing as factors in shrinking enrollment.
The birth rate statewide and in Douglas County has been mostly declining over at least the past 10 years. So has the number of total births — so despite some population growth, there are not as many young people to potentially enter public schools.
“That’s a part of it,” board Vice President Bob Byers said of the declining birth rate. “But I think we have another problem in that we’re not drawing more people to the community.”
Byers said in his neighborhood of townhomes, he sees very few kids.
“A lot of the growth here is in apartments — not really into single family homes,” Byers said. “And to me, the cost of housing, the cost of taxes in our community, makes it difficult for new families to move in and stay.”
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The school board sets a property tax rate for the district each year, and Byers, who has served multiple stints on the board, has most recently been part of unanimous board votes to increase the tax rate for the district’s past three budgets.
But taxes that property owners owe the City of Lawrence and Douglas County also have increased over the past few years as property valuations have risen — a cost that typically extends to tenants as well, in the form of rent increases — even when the city and county commissions have kept flat or decreased the property tax rate.
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Board member Kelly Jones said districts that are growing are in communities that have more development-friendly codes, and where families can find more affordable housing.
James Polk, director of data and assessment for the district, presented updated enrollment data to the four present board members during their Monday meeting.
Most years since 2018-19, enrollment has declined between about 1.5% and 3.2%, according to the data. For 2025-26, it’s down about 2.1% from 2024-25, sitting at 10,148 total students. The numbers “reflect the students served in our buildings consistently, including full-time in-person, virtual, preschool and program students,” according to the presentation.
Shrinking enrollment is a problem for school districts because their funding is directly tied to how many students schools serve. As 939 high school seniors left after the 2024-25 school year, just 635 new kindergarteners entered the district, according to the data.
Preschools and private schools
On the other hand, the district has added multiple preschool programs this year at Woodlawn (14 students) and Sunflower (17 students) elementary schools, on top of programs at Kennedy Early Childhood Center (201 students) and New York Montessori School that have existed for the past few years. In addition, multiple child care centers in town have closed or had systemic issues come to light in recent years.
Altogether, preschool enrollment has grown by 18.1% this year to 260 from 220 in 2024-25, according to the data presented to the board.
Jones asked about private school enrollment and whether it has increased or decreased. Superintendent Jeanice Swift said it’s “really impossible” to confirm that information, but “it’s clear to me, from what I’ve seen informally, that private school enrollment has not increased.”
Jones said public school districts can’t really track how many students are in home schools or micro schools. Board member Shannon Kimball, whose day job is working as governmental relations specialist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, confirmed.
“The only statutory requirement for home school is that you file a document with the State Department of Education that you are homeschooling, and then that’s it,” Kimball said. “There’s no tracking. … We have almost no regulation in Kansas in that area.”
Jones said it would be helpful if the state required reporting so the district could see what families are looking for.
“Obviously the primary driver is birth rate, but it would be helpful to know more comprehensively what’s happening in our community so that we can adjust our practices in a way that might say to families, ‘You’re welcome here,'” Jones said. “‘We’re making accommodations to meet your needs, and we understand that this is what you’re looking for in an educational experience.'”
Boundary changes may be unneeded
Monday’s discussion could play into talks of possible boundary changes that have arisen in recent years.
In June 2024, the board agreed to convene the district’s Boundary Advisory Committee to examine the two high schools’ boundaries as Free State has typically had a few hundred more students than Lawrence High School.
In 2024-25, there was a difference of 316 more students enrolled at FSHS than LHS. But this year, the difference is smaller than it’s been in years, at 161 students — enrollment of 1,621 at FSHS and 1,460 at LHS.
“I was board president when we had this conversation about whether we needed to change boundaries, and I rather dramatically called upon the committee to investigate that,” Jones said. “And now this is a really good reminder of how populations can change at that level, and it reminds me of several times you have cautioned us around changing boundaries as a way to resolve enrollment issues.”
At the conclusion of their last meeting, in February, BAC members had requested more data to better prepare for further talks in the fall looking at boundaries of all district schools. No BAC meetings — which would be open to the public — have been set or held thus far this school year, according to the district’s website.
The district is, however, planning to expand the Langston Hughes Elementary School building as it has been over capacity for years.
See the data
Here’s an interactive version of the chart above that includes total statewide births for Kansas if you hover, tap or click on a data point:
Here’s the full presentation Polk gave the board; see the full discussion on YouTube at this link.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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