The question raised frequently in the press and around day school tables across the country has been how the recent and lingering economic crisis is affecting day school enrollments, with widespread predictions of significant enrollment decline, including in the Modern Orthodox sector.

As he has done annually since the economic decline in 2008, Dr. Marvin Schick has collected and provided enrollment data for schools outside the yeshiva world and Chassidic sectors.

“The data evidences a modest decline overall,” explains Dr. Schick. “Nevertheless, it is important to note that the decline is not necessarily a trend being seen across the country. In fact, there are some schools and communities experiencing growth while others decline.”

In collecting and analyzing the data, Dr. Schick realized that “there are schools that may fall into more than one category.” For consistency sake, he maintained the designations employed in previous censuses, unless the schools notified him of their change in designation. In addition, Dr. Schick notes that “the data for Solomon Schechter schools may indicate a greater degree of fall-off in enrollment than is the case because there are schools that were once designated as Solomon Schechters that have joined the RAVSAK network of Community day schools. Also of note, schools that closed after the 2010-11 school year are included in the data for that year. They obviously are not included in this year’s statistics. All told, five schools in the Community sector closed after the last school year.”