Yesterday Avi Chai Foundation hosted a discussion on day school enrollment – the data, trends and implications. Drawing on information collected by several organizations, including AVI CHAI, PEJE, RAVSAK, SSDSA and PARDeS, a group of educators, journalists, funders, and communal leaders met, in person and virtually, for deeper reflection.

For background: earlier this year, AVI CHAI published a census of Jewish day schools for the 2008-2009 school that was conducted by Dr. Marvin Schick. Dr. Schick found a total of over 228,000 students in day schools. This represented an enrollment growth of 23,000 students compared with five years ago, and 43,000 from a decade ago. The majority of these students are in Chassidic and yeshiva world schools, which account for the majority of the growth in the last decade. However, as compared with 10 years ago, other Orthodox schools and the Community day schools have also grown. Non-Orthodox day school enrollment is up 5% from a decade ago, even after a decline of 2.5% over the past five years.

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

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