{"id":186531,"date":"2026-03-11T00:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186531\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:44:11","slug":"why-is-orange-countys-student-enrollment-falling-depends-on-who-you-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186531\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Orange County\u2019s student enrollment falling? Depends on who you ask"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The Orange County school board is holding public hearings Tuesday night for closure plans for seven public schools. <\/p>\n

How did we get here?<\/p>\n

It depends on who you ask. Some people trace declining enrollment in public schools to the opening of charter schools decades ago. Many parents chose to leave traditional public schools, hoping to find better learning options for their students.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: 7 schools in Orange County closure plan. What you need to know<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, Orange County Public Schools has also opened several magnet schools, including Howard Middle School, Hillcrest Elementary School and Orlando Gifted Academy, which led hundreds of families to leave their zoned neighborhood school.<\/p>\n

Some parents have told News 6 they left public schools due to behavioral issues, or they felt their child\u2019s specific learning needs were not being met.<\/p>\n

However, OCPS leaders have said the enrollment declines really hit the fast track a few years ago, when the state opened school vouchers to any student, regardless of their family\u2019s income. Many families say the vouchers have made it more affordable for them to find other options for their children– whether it is a private school or even homeschooling.<\/p>\n

Even declining birth rates, an aging population and slowing population growth have been blamed.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, school districts across the state are feeling the financial impacts of declining enrollment.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The Orange County school board is holding public hearings Tuesday night for closure plans for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[113,1335,139,141,140,16572,4348],"class_list":{"0":"post-186531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-orange-county","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news","13":"tag-public-schools","14":"tag-schools"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}