PPS Enrollment Dips for Another Year

K–12 enrollment at Portland Public Schools has dipped again in the 2026–27 school year.

The district’s annual enrollment count, which it conducts and releases in October, reported 41,451 students enrolled across its grades. That marks a 2.7% decrease from last year, the district had reported 42,622 in those grades.

There’s little rosy news this year for PPS, which last year saw an unexpected uptick in its kindergarten enrollment. Back then, officials said this was indication families were putting their trust in PPS. This year, kindergarten enrollment is down by more than 100 students, dropping from 2,919 to 2,807 across the district.

The enrollment numbers the district reported this October are also lower than forecasts from Portland State University’s Population Research Center, which projected the district would have 41,921 students enrolled in a medium growth scenario this year. Notably, forecasters at PSU had predicted PPS would enroll 50 more kindergarteners than it did last year.

The news comes as district leaders have pointed to declining enrollment as a key driver behind two proposals, termed Scenario A and Scenario B, to close 14 and 11 schools, respectively.

Back in September, Portland School Board member Stephanie Engelsman had spelled out a concern that parents felt during the consolidation process. Parents, she had said then, were reporting large class sizes, and she had then noted that PPS had seen more kindergarteners in 2025–26. Engelsman wanted the district to capture that momentum, and worried school closures would drive more families away.

Richard Smith, the district’s senior director of data and accountability, said then that preliminary enrollment forecasts weren’t optimistic.

“We’re down across the district below what we projected and staffed for,” Smith said Sept. 15. “That’s a sobering reality that unfortunately the enrollment decline is not stopping.”

Enrollment forecasts have been a big discussion in the school closure process, as some families have worried that PPS is relying too heavily on projections in their decision making. Even the district’s official enrollment counts raised questions at some schools, particularly those on the chopping block, with parents pointing out that their schools had at times enrolled a couple dozen more students than forecasts would have predicted.

The district did not respond to a request for comment on its latest enrollment figures, or on whether variances between forecasts and real enrollment numbers would influence the superintendent’s recommendations on school closures.