Southfield Public Schools hopes to sustain enrollment as statewide enrollment decreases

SOUTHFIELD/LATHRUP VILLAGE — After last month’s student count day, Southfield Public Schools reported a preliminary total of 4,314 students enrolled for the 2025-26 academic year.

School districts throughout Michigan conduct two student count days each academic year, first in October and again in February. The count days are how school districts report enrollment numbers to the state, which then allows the state to allocate funding in addition to any local funding the school districts receive. The October count accounts for 80% of state funding, while the February count accounts for 20%.

The average across Michigan is $10,000 per pupil. Southfield receives $13,000 per pupil.

Southfield Public Schools Chief of Staff James Jackson said that because student count day is directly tied to district funding, it is critical to have strong attendance on those days.

“There are a lot of things the district provides students, and we want to make sure that we are accurately funded so those services are provided with full fidelity,” he said.

In order to accommodate any students who were absent on count days, Michigan allows a 30-day window for school districts to get a full count.

According to Mi School Data, Michigan’s official source for education and workforce data, Southfield Public Schools reported 4,314 students enrolled for the 2025-26 school year. The grade with the highest enrollment was sixth grade with 379 students. Pre-K had the least enrolled with 65 students.

Jackson said the bulk of students are from the city of Southfield. Roughly 85% of the students are Southfield residents, 7% are Lathrup Village residents and the remaining 8% are school of choice students from other neighboring communities.

Southfield Public Schools has seen a decrease in enrollment between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. The 2024-25 school year reported a total of 4,511 students. Compared to the preliminary count of 4,314 for 2025-26, this shows a decrease of 197 students.

Jackson said the district has had a decrease of around 200 students every year for the last five academic years. He said this is not unique to Southfield, however, and that enrollment has been declining in Michigan as a whole. According to Mi School Data, the state of Michigan has seen a decline in enrollment every year for the past nine years. In the 2016-17 school year, the state reported 1,532,335 enrolled students. For 2025-26, the enrollment number is 1,419,859.

Kenneth Colemen, a spokesman from the Michigan Department of Education’s Office of Public and Governmental Affairs, provided comment to the Southfield Sun via email.

“Local school districts and Michigan are working collaboratively to attract more students in numerous ways, including new laws and other measures to improve student literacy, expanding preschool and secondary school programs, developing and hiring more outstanding and highly qualified teachers, providing better school mental health services and advocating successfully for school funding increases. The state has shown improvements in many metrics that measure progress toward goals in Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan [michigan.gov], including record-high metrics for graduation rates, participation and success in Advanced Placement exams and participation in Career and Technical Education programs.

We support parents’ right to choose the most appropriate educational setting for their children, however, the proliferation of charter schools in the state has contributed to enrollment losses in traditional public schools along with the declining birth rate. The number of charter schools in the state, which was capped at 150 until a change in state law in 2011, had jumped to 366 as of the 2024-25 school year.”

Jackson said Southfield is implementing strategies to maintain and grow its enrollment numbers. The Southfield Public Schools Board of Education renewed the district’s enrollment policy, which involved its school of choice policy. School of choice allows the opportunity for students who do not live within school district limits to enroll in Southfield. Jackson said the policy is designed specifically to increase enrollment and broaden student populations.

“There are families that want their children to go to Southfield schools, but they don’t live here, so school of choice is the only pathway to allow that,” he said.

As for sustaining enrollment, Jackson said the school district’s strategy is focused on the academic, athletic and extracurricular programs offered as well as school safety. He said the district wants to ensure its continuing to add and diversify what it offers to students.