Parents greet their children in front of Harborview Elementary School in Juneau at the end of the school day on Dec. 21, 2022.
“We figured maybe we’d have more coming in just because the pandemic was lessening,” Olin said. “Things were going back to normal in classrooms. We’re not wearing masks, we’re not doing those kinds of things, so [we thought] families would feel more safe to be back in classrooms and bring their kids back to school.”shows the total number of kindergarten-age students in Juneau – and all of Alaska – will likely continue to go down.
“Around 2010, we were at 2.3 children per woman,” he said. “Now we’ve fallen in Alaska to 1.9 children per woman, which is obviously not enough to replace the existing population. And Juneau has had a lower fertility rate than the state as a whole for a long time.” The Juneau School District isn’t the only one dealing with lower than expected enrollment. In Anchorage, school administrators have cited birth rate data whenHowell said it’s too early to tell whether this overall decline is starting to level off in Alaska.