Correction appended

Enrollment in the nation鈥檚 largest school district dropped just 1.9 percent this year, less than some other major cities, but one city official is skeptical of whether the numbers tell the full tale.

There are roughly 938,000 students now attending traditional New York City public schools, down from 955,000 last year and slightly over 1 million in the 2019-20 school year. Following national trends, enrollment in independently run city charter schools rose 3.2 percent this year, to 143,000.

The drop in NYC district public school enrollment was smaller than the reported in Los Angeles versus last year and a in Chicago, estimated by a WBEZ analysis, which would mean the district may no longer be the nation鈥檚 third largest.

Before the New York City Department of Education released figures on Friday, which are preliminary and have not yet been audited by the state, elected officials had long been pressing the city to publish clear data on enrollment and attendance rates by school. 

One of them, City Councilman Mark Treyger, believes the numbers may obscure more dire circumstances 鈥� such as attendance rates below 50 percent in some schools.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a full picture of attendance in our school system,鈥� he told 蜜桃影视.

To be counted as 鈥渆nrolled鈥� in a school, Treyger said, students must show up once during the month of October. That means youth could miss school more than 90 percent of the time and still contribute to their respective buildings鈥� tallies.

The DOE did not offer an alternative description of its policy, but cautioned against conflating attendance and enrollment. 鈥淎 student is enrolled until they are discharged,鈥� Deputy Press Secretary Nathaniel Styer wrote in an email to 蜜桃影视.

鈥淭hey could literally be absent three weeks straight,鈥� said Treyger, who chairs the Education Committee and formerly worked as a New York City public school teacher.

The DOE has yet to respond to a public records request filed by 蜜桃影视 in May for the number of students chronically absent 鈥� those missing 10 percent or more days 鈥� in the 2020-21 school year.

The data released Friday do not offer a precise indication of how many students are regularly missing class, though officials said that average daily attendance has been this year.

Anecdotally, Treyger said he has heard accounts from principals in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx of attendance rates that have reached what he called 鈥渆mergency status鈥� 鈥� as low as 40 or 50 percent.

The district publishes daily attendance rates for each school, but they do not include the numerical counts of how many students show up, nor do they publish the share of students who have missed so much class that they may be academically at risk, a threshold that researchers say is when students are absent one out of every 10 days. On Monday, from the district indicated that 39 of the city鈥檚 roughly 1,600 schools had attendance rates under 50 percent, but many of those buildings were , which historically have had lower attendance rates because they serve students as old as 21 who often work jobs.

Last year, the city only released school-by-school attendance rates once Treyger subpoenaed for disaggregated attendance logs. Those numbers revealed that schools with a majority of Black and Hispanic students were to report low virtual learning engagement or poor attendance than whiter schools.

Now, the council member is taking legislative action to require that the district publicize school-by-school weekly attendance by percentages and the raw number of students absent. Mayor Bill de Blasio鈥檚 office did not respond to questions about whether he would sign those pieces of legislation should they reach his desk. The mayor leaves office at the end of the year.

Students who had not consistently shown up to class received from the district urging them to attend school 鈥� a measure Treyger says is 鈥渃ompletely inadequate.鈥� 

Even without further data, the numbers released by the DOE provide further evidence of the profound disruption that the pandemic has had on public education. All told, traditional public schools in New York City have lost 64,000 students since before COVID-19.

鈥淲hile not as bad as the worst projections, the loss of 64,000 public school students since the start of the pandemic 鈥� roughly the equivalent of the entire current third grade citywide 鈥� is a major problem for the Department of Education and the city,鈥� said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew in a statement sent to 蜜桃影视. 鈥淭he DOE needs to mount a major campaign to get those kids back into our classrooms.鈥�

Before the Friday numbers, Mulgrew had posited that as many as might not have stepped foot in city classrooms. The estimate was provided to the union in early September, said spokesperson Alison Gendar, but when asked, she did not specify the source of the data. At that point in time, the Delta variant was in full swing and more parents may have been keeping children home for fear of the virus.

There is no remote schooling option in New York City provided by the DOE this year, except for select instances for . A DOE spokesperson told 蜜桃影视 that the city has received about 750 applications for the program and has about 500 students enrolled. Those students are included in the count the city publicized last week.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the NYC Department of Education does not publish school-by-school attendance rates. The DOE does release that data daily, but does not publish the numerical counts behind its percentages or the share of students who are chronically absent, meaning those missing so much school they may be academically at risk.

The New York City Department of Education has not yet released data on the total number of young people enrolled in its schools, nor has it confirmed exactly how many students have shown up each day 鈥� figures that officials say the DOE has on hand but is choosing not to make public.听

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鈥淭hey are refusing to disclose critical information,鈥� New York City Councilman Mark Treyger, who has repeatedly pressed the district to release the counts, told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淭he situation right now is concerning because we don’t have a full picture of enrollment and attendance per school.鈥澛�

Those figures will be released, the DOE said, after registers close for the district鈥檚 Oct. 31 reporting deadline to the state.听

Meanwhile, officials fear that as many 150,000 students may have in city classrooms this year.听

There鈥檚 鈥渘o question鈥� the school district has more detailed attendance and enrollment data than it鈥檚 releasing, said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children of New York. Using numbers obtained from the DOE, her nonprofit recently found that attendance among students without permanent housing was just through the first weeks of school. Attendance for that highly vulnerable population has since ticked up to , the DOE said on Oct. 18 鈥� further indication there are more detailed data that the city is keeping under wraps.

On Sept. 28, Los Angeles Unified School District made headlines after revealing a compared to its enrollment the previous year 鈥� the steepest decline seen by the city in years. The same week, a news analysis of showed the district had lost 10,000 students, meaning it may no longer be the nation鈥檚 third-largest. Other top school systems, like Houston Independent School District, have yet to publicize their counts.

In late September, the New York Post that roughly 200 schools in New York City were missing at least a quarter of their student bodies, and 51 had absentee rates above 40 percent. In hopes of tracking down missing kids, the Department of Education pressed principals to reach out via .听

A spokesperson for the school system explained that those numbers may be misleading because the counts include so-called 鈥渢ransfer schools,鈥� which historically have had lower attendance rates because they serve students as old as 19 who often work jobs.听

But the district failed to provide a more accurate tabulation of the share of schools struggling with high absenteeism when asked by 蜜桃影视.

Last year, New York City schools saw a in their overall student body 鈥斅爁rom slightly over 1 million students to 955,490 鈥斅爓ith indications that the problem may only worsen in 2021-22: In April, kindergarten applications were down , with 8,000 fewer applicants than the year prior.

The district this year is requiring in-person learning for most students after last year when a majority of families opted for online instruction. With for the spread of COVID-19 in schools, especially those whose children are still too young to receive coronavirus immunizations, it remains unclear how many have chosen to keep their children home for safety concerns.

The city publishes a day-by-day attendance rate, which on Oct. 19 was reported to be . But Mayor Bill de Blasio has the numerator and denominator behind the percentage 鈥� the district’s total enrollment divided by the number of students in attendance that day. Those counts are normally released later in the school year, the district maintains.

But this year is different, emphasized Treyger, who chairs the Education Committee and聽 formerly worked as a New York City public school teacher. Anecdotally, the council member said he has heard accounts from principals in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx of attendance rates that have reached what he called 鈥渆mergency status鈥� 鈥� as low as 40 or 50 percent. In light of the dire concerns, he believes the school district ought to release the attendance ledgers.

鈥淣othing prohibits the city from sharing those enrollment numbers with the public,鈥� he said.

But with the school system dragging its heels, the council member has filed legislation requiring it to publicize those data, as well as school-by-school attendance counts. If passed, the bills could go into force as early as late November, Treyger said.听

Mayor Bill de Blasio鈥檚 office did not respond to questions from 蜜桃影视 about whether he聽 would sign those pieces of legislation should they reach his desk. The mayor leaves office at the end of the year.

Separately, 蜜桃影视 filed a public records request in May for the number of students chronically absent 鈥� those missing 10 percent or more days 鈥� in the 2020-21 school year. The DOE, which was forced to reform its public records procedures in 2018 after being sued for non-compliance with the law, delayed its response to the request from June to October and then from October to January.

Levine, of Advocates for Children, feels similarly to Treyger, that quality data are necessary to help diagnose the most pressing problems facing students in the nation鈥檚 largest school system.

鈥淚f the bus isn鈥檛 coming, there鈥檚 a very different solution than if a parent is concerned about safety during COVID-19,鈥� she said. 鈥淧ublic data helps to shine a light on disparities within the education system and allow stakeholders to help identify and push for solutions.鈥澛�