Nearly every Marion County school district and most charter schools lost students this fall, signaling even more of a potential financial squeeze for public schools.
Enrollment for Indianapolis Public Schools, the county’s largest district, dropped by 8% with a loss of 1,616 students, according to Indiana Department of Education data for the 2026-27 school year. The county’s charter schools, nearly all of which are within IPS borders, lost a combined 301 students — a 1.3% drop — despite the approval of several new charter schools.
The reclassification of one school with more than 400 students makes the drop steeper for IPS and milder for charter schools.
Still, the decline mirrors drops throughout Indiana public schools, where enrollment — including for adult high schools and virtual schools — fell 2%, or 20,797 students. Falling birth rates, universally available state-funded vouchers for private schools and a surge of deportations in the last 18 months under the Trump administration are factors.
The decline exacerbates financial challenges for many schools. Most state funding for schools is allocated based on student enrollment at each district. The drop comes during a property tax reform movement that ultimately restricts the other major source for school dollars — local property tax revenues.
IPS could face a tougher fight for students in 2027-28. In a move that drew objection from charter school advocates, IPS is leaving behind a citywide enrollment system and launching its own before announcing school closures. District leaders say it is meant in part to retain students who might leave the district after their school is shuttered.
“The intent is to work as hard as we can to maintain enrollment, but also to support families who we know are going to be most impacted,” Superintendent Aleesia Johnson told WFYI earlier this month.
In IPS, enrollment declines could inform school closures
Within IPS borders, more school operators are competing for fewer students than last school year.
In October 2025, there were 48,869 students attending public schools or receiving a state-funded private school tuition voucher who lived within IPS borders. This year, that figure is 1.2% lower — 48,260 students.
The IPS figures include schools that are in the district’s Innovation Network of autonomous schools, which are not charter schools.
About half of the district’s decline came from English language learner students, whose numbers dropped by 822, according to state enrollment records. Hispanic students posted the steepest decline among the district’s major racial and ethnic groups.
"Anecdotally, the political climate is disproportionally impacting families that are impacted by immigration policies with the recent federal administration," a district spokesperson said in a statement.
George Washington High School, Robert Lee Frost School 106 and Brookside School 54 had the steepest percentage declines since last year. Those losses, along with a building’s targeted capacity, could guide which schools IPS closes in 2027.
The district anticipates a $20 million deficit that could be even larger if voters reject a property-tax referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot for IPS and charter schools. Under a deal with the teachers union, the district has committed to avoiding widespread layoffs to close the gap. The exception to that, however, is if a school’s enrollment declines.
“If a school has had a really significant decline in enrollment, there will be shifts to their school staff we need to make,” Johnson told WFYI.
One school closure would save the district an estimated $500,000, Johnson said. The district expects to announce potential school closures by Dec. 18, the start of winter break.
The district lost students in every grade, and its greatest year-over-year loss occurred in prekindergarten, which dropped 22%, from 691 to 537 students.
A district spokesperson said that IPS closed eight prekindergarten sites this year — part of the $24 million in cuts IPS announced in the spring. The district also increased the tuition for students to attend prekindergarten.
Among grade bands, high school had the greatest drop from last year, 11%.
Middle school enrollment is down 28% since 2023-24, the year before the Rebuilding Stronger plan created standalone middle schools and ended the K-8 school model.
Despite the overall loss of students, the district’s share of Black and Hispanic students remained about the same since last year, at roughly 39% and 36%, respectively.
Charter enrollment drops despite addition of new schools
Enrollment in the county’s charter schools dropped 1.3% to 22,431 students. The numbers exclude adult high schools and virtual schools not affiliated with the IPS Innovation Network.
The loss of 301 students among Marion County's 66 charter schools is higher than the previous year’s decline of 100 students.
Cold Spring School was authorized to become a charter in 2026, meaning it's 424 students are not counted by the state in the IPS enrollment total.
Without Cold Spring's change of oversight, the county charter sector's total enrollment would be down about 3.2%.
The decline is despite the addition or expansion of several charter schools: Legal Prep Academy, Believe Indy’s Accelerator, a third Indiana Math and Science campus, Global Prep Academy at the Monon, and Monarca Academy High School.
Charter enrollment declines could prompt school mergers, said Scott Bess of the Indiana Charter Innovation Center, a statewide membership organization that advocates for the sector.
“It’s really, really difficult to continue to operate a school that has 150 students or 200 students if you have all the kind of typical overhead of a school,” Bess said. “All of a sudden, that gets really tough to sustain if you’re not adding students and growing that base.”
Township districts post enrollment decline
The Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township had the greatest decline in students, a 4% drop from 15,734 students to 15,037. Since 2024-25, it has lost nearly 7% of students.
Washington Township enrollment fell 3% to just under 11,000 students, Superintendent Sean Taylor said, citing a demographic study that indicated enrollment would shrink. Low birth rates and slow housing turnover are driving the decline, he said.
Only Beech Grove City Schools and the Franklin Township Community School Corporation experienced an increase in students from last year.
Beech Grove continues to grow in enrollment after launching its virtual schools in 2025-26, a move that nearly doubled the size of the district. While enrollment at its five brick-and-mortar schools declined from 2,754 to 2,624, enrollment at its virtual schools increased by nearly 1,000 students to 3,709.
The decline could make it harder for school officials statewide to convince voters to pass a property tax increase. In Marion County, Beech Grove, Decatur Township, Washington Township and Wayne Township schools are seeking operating referendums. Voters in IPS will also decide on a referendum to fund the district and about 60 charter schools.
“Operational costs like transportation, facilities, safety, and specialized student services do not decrease proportionally when enrollment fluctuates,” IPS said in a statement.
Taylor said Washington Township’s request to maintain its referendum — which would generate a projected additional $24 million in property taxes — is important. If approved, the funds would maintain 300 existing positions, the district said.
“We’re still planning to put strong support services and academic programming in place for over 10,000 students, regardless of that decline,” Taylor said. “And that requires resources to do so.”
Wayne Township officials said there is still a need for a referendum despite a year-over-year drop in enrollment. Fixed costs such as the buildings and transportation remain the same.
Wayne Superintendent Shenia Suggs told WFYI that the district has eliminated 108 positions.
Contact WFYI education reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey at apak-harvey@wfyi.org.
