The COVID-19 pandemic transformed many parents’ home and work lives, with some changes like shuttered schools and remote learning leading to a drop in enrollment of children ages 3 and 4. But new data show enrollment has started to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.
Non-Hispanic Black 3- and 4-year-olds experienced higher enrollment levels (61.7%) in 2022 than in the four previous years, despite a slow enrollment recovery.
The 2022 Current Population Survey (CPS) shows that the share of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in all U.S. schools, both federally funded and private, increased by 13.0 percentage points from 40.3% in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, to 53.3% in 2022 when the pandemic emergency ended (Figure 1). There was a smaller change in enrollment of students ages 5 to 17 during that period.
In this article, we focus on changes in school enrollment of children ages 3 and 4.
The share of these children enrolled in school in 2022 was up by 2.9 percentage points from 2021 and 13.0 percentage points from 2020. School enrollment for this group in 2022 was not statistically different than it was in 2018 and 2019.
Hispanic 3- and 4-Year-Old Enrollment
Figure 2 shows the share of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in school by race and Hispanic origin between 2018 and 2022.
Enrollment among Hispanic 3- and 4-year-olds of any race decreased by 16.8 percentage points between 2019 and 2020 but fully recovered from 2020 to 2022 when enrollment increased by 14.4 percentage points. Hispanic 3- and 4-year-olds had an enrollment rate of 47.4% in 2022, which was not statistically different from 2021.
Non-Hispanic Black 3- and 4-Year-Olds
Another large enrollment decline during the pandemic was for non-Hispanic Black 3- and 4-year-olds.
In 2020, 40.9% were enrolled, 14.1 points lower than in 2019 and 20.8 points lower than in 2022.
Non-Hispanic Black 3- and 4-year-olds experienced higher enrollment levels (61.7%) in 2022 than in the four previous years, despite a slow enrollment recovery.
Non-Hispanic White 3- and 4-Year-Olds
Enrollment of non-Hispanic White 3- and 4-year-olds dropped by 11.0 percentage points between 2019 and 2020. But it rebounded and fully recovered with an 11.2 percentage point increase from 2020 to 2022.
Other Race, Non-Hispanic 3- and 4-Year-Olds
Enrollment of Other Race, non-Hispanic 3- and 4-year-olds did not make a statistically significant recovery since 2020. It was 46.4% in 2020, down from 57.9% in 2019. Enrollment inched up to 49.1% in 2022, which was not statistically different from the four years prior.
Note
Definitions and more information on confidentiality protection and sampling and nonsampling error are available in the technical documentation. All comparative statements in this story have undergone statistical testing and, unless otherwise noted, are statistically significant at the 10% significance level.