MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) today released 2022-23 school year enrollment data for Minnesota’s schools. In the 2022-23 school year, public schools have seen a roughly 0.3% decrease—or about 2,427 students—in enrollment since 2021-22.

Funding for public schools is directly tied to student enrollment, and these shifts underscore the importance of stabilizing funding for Minnesota public schools. Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan’s One Minnesota Budget aims to stabilize education funding by investing in the general education formula and indexing the formula to inflation, and by reducing the English Learner and special education cross subsidies.

“Minnesota's students deserve high-quality academic instruction and social-emotional supports,” said Commissioner Willie Jett. “Our public schools must be provided with the necessary resources to meet these needs.”

When comparing this year's data to the previous year's, charter schools saw a 1.9% enrollment increase and nonpublic schools saw a 3.4% enrollment increase. At the same time homeschooling saw a 5% decrease from 2021-22. The number of public-school students qualifying for free or reduced meals increased 36.9% from the 2021-22 school year to the 2022-23 school year. This is attributed to a number of factors, including but not limited to the expiration of the federal free meals program for all children and the addition of collecting direct certification of children via Medicaid.

2022-23 is the first year the Minnesota definition of American Indian is included in the public enrollment file and on the Minnesota Report Card. The state definition allows students to be reported as American Indian even if they also belong to other racial and ethnic groups. Under the federal definition of American Indian or Alaska Native, these students would fall under “two or more races” and would not be counted as American Indian or Alaska Native in reporting. In 2022-23, American Indian students (state definition) saw an enrollment increase of 4.1%.

There were also increases in enrollment among Hispanic or Latino students (3.2%), Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students (8.4%), Black students (0.2%), Asian students (0.4%), and students identifying as two or more races (2.8%). White students saw enrollment decreases of 1.5%.

Minnesota public schools serve all students and provide additional support for the highest-needs students, such as English Learners and students receiving special education services, both of which are groups that have continued to grow over the last several years. Between 2021-22 and 2022-23, Minnesota’s English Learner student population increased by 3.6% and the number of students receiving special education services grew by 3.3%.

All enrollment data provided for the 2022-23 school year is based on what enrollment counts looked like at Minnesota schools on Oct. 1, 2022.

Enrollment data can be downloaded from MDE’s Data Center or accessed through the Minnesota Report Card.

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