In this series: The NJEdTribune examines New Jersey's latest enrollment decline, the districts defying it, and the demographic shifts underneath the statewide total.

Correction (July 20, 2026): An earlier version described 663 as the number of districts reporting 2025-26 enrollment. The package contains 665 reporting districts; 663 have a valid prior-year comparison. The published count of 414 shrinking districts and its rounded 62% share use that comparable panel and are unchanged. Re-running the stated five-year linear model also corrected the 2035-36 kindergarten projection from 78,600 to approximately 92,900 and the projected K/12 ratio from 0.78 to 0.71.

New Jersey recently released its 2025-26 fall enrollment file. The figures below come from the state's published enrollment reports and cover the 27 academic years from 1999-2000 through 2025-26. This piece is the data overview for the EdTribune's 2025-26 New Jersey enrollment series. It does not interpret the numbers. Subsequent articles in the series will.

The headline numbers

Total enrollment in 2025-26 was 1,357,450, down 23,732 students (-1.72%) from 2024-25. That is the largest single-year decline in the 27-year window of state files. It is also the lowest annual total since the 2001-02 school year (the 2002-03 total was 1,367,249, slightly above this year's figure).

Stripping pre-kindergarten out for a consistent K-12 measure across the full 27-year panel, K-12 enrollment fell 24,564 students (-1.9%), from 1,293,951 in 2024-25 to 1,269,386 in 2025-26. The first COVID year (2019-20 to 2020-21) saw a K-12 decline of 24,811 (-1.86%). The 2025-26 K-12 decline is virtually identical in size.

District breadth: 665 districts report 2025-26 enrollment, and 663 have a valid prior-year comparison. Of that comparable panel, 414 (62%) shrank year-over-year. The decline is broad rather than concentrated.

Pre-kindergarten was the only growing segment. PK rose by 832 students this year and is up 46,857 students (+113.7%) since 2018-19. The PK gain absorbed about 3% of the K-12 loss.

Measure	2024-25	2025-26	Change
Total enrollment	1,381,182	1,357,450	-23,732 (-1.72%)
K-12 (total minus PK)	1,293,951	1,269,386	-24,564 (-1.90%)
Pre-K	87,231	88,063	+832 (+1.0%)
Kindergarten	89,428	86,554	-2,874 (-3.21%)
12th grade	107,048	105,879	-1,169 (-1.09%)
Hispanic	483,504	477,187	-6,318 (-1.31%)
English learners (LEP)	155,304	152,211	-3,093 (-1.99%)
Districts that shrank YoY	355 of 666	414 of 663	n/a

Hispanic and English-learner reversals

Hispanic enrollment in 2025-26 was 477,187, down 6,318 students (-1.31%) from 2024-25. This is the first annual decline in the 27-year state file panel. From 2000-01 through 2024-25, Hispanic enrollment grew every single year, averaging roughly 11,700 additional students per year over that span.

English-learner enrollment was 152,211 in 2025-26, down 3,093 students (-1.99%) from 2024-25. The previous annual decline was in 2010-11 (-440), and before that in 2007-08 (-2,444). The 2024-25 figure had been a record sprint of +24,481 students (+18.7%) over the prior year. The 2025-26 figure is the first reversal in this measure since 2010-11.

The Hispanic decline concentrates in the state's 20 largest Hispanic-enrollment districts. In 2024-25, those 20 districts collectively added 1,371 Hispanic students; 9 of 20 had grown. In 2025-26, the same 20 districts collectively lost 5,628 Hispanic students, and 13 of 20 lost Hispanic students year-over-year. The aggregate flipped from net positive to net negative in a single year.

Top-20 Hispanic-enrollment districts (2025-26)	2024-25 Hisp. change	2025-26 Hisp. change
Newark Public School District	+1,669	+460
Elizabeth Public Schools	+88	-1,002
Paterson Public School District	-242	-1,138
Union City School District	-63	-612
Passaic City School District	-311	-709
Trenton Public School District	+612	-827
Jersey City Public Schools	-134	-321
Perth Amboy Public School District	-138	-119
Plainfield Public School District	-213	-398
New Brunswick School District	-384	-488
West New York School District	-60	-485
Clifton Public School District	+40	-108
Vineland Public School District	-43	-119
North Bergen School District	-34	-145
Hamilton Township Public School District	+274	+92
Bridgeton City School District	-21	+198
Woodbridge Township School District	+78	+9
Toms River Regional School District	+153	+54
Kearny	+94	+23
Belleville Public School District	+6	+7
Top-20 aggregate	+1,371	-5,628

Kindergarten and the K-to-12th-grade ratio

Kindergarten enrollment was 86,554 in 2025-26, down 2,874 (-3.21%) from 2024-25. The K-to-12 ratio (kindergarten count divided by 12th-grade count) was 0.82 in 2025-26, the lowest in 27 years of state files.

For context, the K/12 ratio in 1999-00, the earliest year in the current state files, was 1.23. The ratio peaked at 1.28 in 2000-01. A ratio of 1.00 means the kindergarten class equals the graduating class. New Jersey's ratio first fell below 1.00 in 2006-07 and has not returned above it; in 2020-21 it dropped sharply to 0.83. In 2025-26, the kindergarten class is about 18% smaller than the graduating class.

A simple linear projection anchored to the most recent five years of K and 12th-grade trends would place the kindergarten cohort at roughly 90,700 by 2030-31 and 92,900 by 2035-36. The model projects 12th grade growing faster, taking the K/12 ratio to 0.71 by the latter year. This is an illustrative extrapolation, not a forecast of policy or demographic change.

State composition, 2009-10 vs. 2025-26

The state's detailed enrollment tables run from 2009-10 forward. The two snapshots below cover the most recent 17 years.

By race and ethnicity

Group	2009-10 students	2009-10 share	2025-26 students	2025-26 share	Absolute change
White	734,665	53.1%	494,974	36.5%	-239,690
Hispanic	285,946	20.7%	477,187	35.2%	+191,241
Black	234,112	16.9%	191,180	14.1%	-42,932
Asian	117,656	8.5%	141,702	10.4%	+24,046
Multiracial	5,969	0.4%	47,160	3.5%	+41,190
Native American	2,733	0.2%	2,881	0.2%	+148
Pacific Islander	2,627	0.2%	2,365	0.2%	-262

(Multiracial counts climbed from 5,970 in 2009-10 to 13,801 in 2012-13 and continued rising afterward.)

By special population

Population	2009-10	2025-26	Change
English learners (LEP)	55,803	152,211	+96,408
Free lunch	358,912	511,826	+152,914
Reduced-price lunch	86,152	68,187	-17,965
Multiracial students	5,969	47,160	+41,191

Note: state-level free-lunch share rose from about 32% to about 37% between 2023-24 and 2024-25, the largest single-year shift in this measure in the 17-year window. [Suggestive context:] Expanded participation in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which lets eligible schools and districts serve meals at no cost without household applications, could contribute to the jump. The enrollment file alone does not establish the cause, so year-over-year free-lunch comparisons across that boundary should be interpreted cautiously.

By district sector

Sector	2009-10 students	2019-20 students	2025-26 students	2025-26 share
Traditional public districts	1,338,414	1,289,592	1,262,234	93.0%
Charter schools	21,686	55,604	64,037	4.7%
County vocational-technical districts	23,606	30,634	31,178	2.3%

Top 10 districts by 2025-26 enrollment

Rank	District	2009-10	2024-25	2025-26	YoY	Change since 2009-10
1	Newark Public School District	39,440	43,980	43,216	-764 (-1.7%)	+3,776 (+9.6%)
2	Elizabeth Public Schools	21,743	27,979	26,708	-1,271 (-4.5%)	+4,965 (+22.8%)
3	Jersey City Public Schools	27,464	25,692	25,307	-385 (-1.5%)	-2,157 (-7.9%)
4	Paterson Public School District	24,080	23,609	21,849	-1,760 (-7.5%)	-2,231 (-9.3%)
5	Edison Township School District	14,215	16,708	16,191	-517 (-3.1%)	+1,976 (+13.9%)
6	Trenton Public School District	10,979	15,473	14,379	-1,094 (-7.1%)	+3,400 (+31.0%)
7	Toms River Regional School District	17,102	14,117	13,925	-192 (-1.4%)	-3,177 (-18.6%)
8	Woodbridge Township School District	13,105	13,870	13,425	-445 (-3.2%)	+320 (+2.4%)
9	Hamilton Township Public School District	12,757	12,194	12,112	-82 (-0.7%)	-645 (-5.1%)
10	Union City School District	10,224	12,617	12,006	-611 (-4.8%)	+1,782 (+17.4%)

County-level totals, 2009-10 to 2025-26

Aggregating district-level enrollment by the county where each district sits. The figures below exclude charter schools (which the state files group under a separate "Charters" pseudo-county).

Counties with the largest absolute gains

County	2009-10	2025-26	Change	% change
Union	87,317	95,696	+8,379	+9.6%
Essex	119,443	125,813	+6,370	+5.3%
Hudson	77,386	80,614	+3,228	+4.2%
Middlesex	120,334	121,809	+1,475	+1.2%
Mercer	57,780	58,960	+1,179	+2.0%

Counties with the largest absolute declines

County	2009-10	2025-26	Change	% change
Monmouth	105,552	87,674	-17,878	-16.9%
Ocean	75,759	63,831	-11,927	-15.7%
Morris	80,127	72,082	-8,045	-10.0%
Passaic	80,099	73,151	-6,948	-8.7%
Somerset	55,006	48,696	-6,310	-11.5%

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.