FY 2022 Educational Facilities Master Plan

6.2

PRIVATE & HOME SCHOOL ANALYSIS

PRIVATE SCHOOLS & HOME SCHOOLING WCPS is currently tracking fifteen (15) private schools and their associated enrollments in conjunction with registered home school students in order to address any potential related public school capacity issues. Both private and home school saw significant increases during the 2020-2021 school year due to COVID. We are closely monitoring as we anticipate some of this increase to shift back to the public school during the coming school year. Private school enrollments during the 2020-2021 school year decreased by 135 (see figure 4). It is worth noting COVID capacity restrictions may have caused this decrease.

Private School Population (5 Year Trend)

1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

1984

1970

1954

1961

1819

2016-2017

2017-2018

2018-2019

2019-2020

2020-2021

Figure 4

The four largest private schools within WCPS attendance areas are (1) Salisbury Christian School with 506 students, (2) Salisbury School with 312, (3) Wicomico Day School with 240 and (4) St. Francis with 158. While the total combined population in private schools reported for last year was 1,819 or 12.8% of our public school enrollment, any shift from private to public could impact our projected plans. And it is important to keep in mind that several private schools can potentially impact our public high school enrollment numbers because the facilities do not provide all 12 years of education (see the Non- Public Schools Sheet at the end of the enrollments section). These trends can be seen in figure 5. The drop from 4th to 5th grades can be attributed to students going to Delmar, DE for fifth grade. The rise in enrollments from 8th to 9th grade are the students whom leave private schools after middle school.

Wicomico County Public Schools Class Survival Trends

1,000 1,050 1,100 1,150 1,200 1,250 1,300 1,350 1,400

900 950

k

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

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12

2011‐2023

2012‐2024

2013‐2025

Figure 5

Wicomico County Public Schools Educational Facilities Master Plan FY 2022

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