The Utah State Board of Education on Wednesday released its annual enrollment data compiled from school districts across the state. The data was recorded Oct. 1 and shows overall growth in student population by over 8,600 people.

The second-year effects of the pandemic shone through with updates to homeschooled and virtual students. There were 1,227 students statewide who transferred to homeschooling in 2021, down from 3,375 in 2020. The number of students enrolled in virtual schooling jumped by over 12,000 students in 2020 to 26,605 and saw a slight uptick in 2021 to 26,711 students.

“Of course, we understand that everything’s not back to normal yet and there are parents, students, teachers, and school staff who continue to have concerns. Schools and health departments continue to work to make schools a safe environment in which all students can learn and succeed,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson said in a press release.

The Davis School District student population jumped by 1,897 students in 2021 to 72,540, which is still below the pre-COVID enrollment from two years ago. Davis is also the second-largest district in the state behind Alpine. Weber School District also saw a bump in enrollment, by 534 students, while Ogden School District decreased by 142 students.

Across the available data, Ogden consistently stands apart from its regional counterparts. The district is still one of two in the state in which a majority of its students are minorities, along with the majority-Native American San Juan School District. OSD is now 50.2% hispanic — while the state’s overall enrollment is 19% hispanic. Weber is 13.7% Hispanic and Davis is even lower at 11.3%. All three districts are below the statewide averages for Black, Asian, Native American and Pacific Islander populations. These combined to have Davis (81.7%) and Weber (80.7%) above the average for white student populations, which is 72%. Ogden schools are 43% white.

This information came the same week the Davis School District was found to have had “serious and widespread racial harassment,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.  The investigation covered occurrences from 2015-2020. Davis also recorded that 0.4% of students are multiracial, well below the state’s average of 3%. There were 3.3% of Ogden students and 2.8% in Weber who marked themselves as having multiple races.

Ogden is tied for the second-highest percentage of “economically disadvantaged” students at 60.77% with Piute School District, which has 283 total students. Both are below San Juan, which has 100% economically disadvantaged students. On the opposite end is Davis, which has the third-lowest percentage of economically disadvantaged students (16.4%) behind North Summit School District (16.27%) and South Summit (14.51%). Weber sits in the middle of the pack with 26.5% economically disadvantaged students. Weber County, particularly the western portion, are experiencing a period of economic and industrial growth. WSD has a bond measure to build new schools to compensate for the rise in population on this November’s ballot.

Ogden School District also has the highest percentage of homeless students among the three, at 1.8%, with 1.6% of students in Davis experiencing homelessness. The statewide average is 1% — well above the 0.2% recorded at Weber schools.

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