Sioux Falls School Board: Enrollment Drops as Diversity Grows

The Sioux Falls School District is seeing its student population slide, with total K-12 enrollment dropping 1.3% this year. According to a final fall enrollment count taken September 25 and presented to the school board on October 26, the district now serves 23,666 K-12 students—310 fewer than the 23,976 counted last year.

This isn’t a sudden shock to the system. District administrators and board members had already been bracing for a dip, having seen estimates weeks earlier that the decline could be as steep as 356 students. While a 1.3% drop might seem like a rounding error on a spreadsheet, in the world of public education, students are the primary currency. Because the district is funded on a per-student allocation, every empty desk represents a direct hit to the budget.

Kindergarten Enrollment Drops as Birth Rates Decline

The most telling data point isn’t the overall percentage, but where the loss is happening. The kindergarten class has shrunk from 1,723 students last year to 1,681 this year. This isn’t a local fluke; it’s a symptom of a national trend. Birth rates across the U.S. declined in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a “demographic cliff” that is now hitting school doorways.

Report: Fewer kindergartners in Sioux Falls Schools

But birth rates aren’t the only culprit. District officials are also tracking an aging urban core and a rise in alternative instruction and non-public school options. It’s a tug-of-war between a shrinking pool of local children and the district’s ability to attract “open enrollment” transfers from other areas.

A Multicultural Shift in the Classroom

While the total number of students is down, the makeup of the student body is shifting. White students now make up 53.7% of the population, while 46.3% of students identify as coming from a multicultural background. That non-white demographic actually grew by 1% over the last year.

Sioux Falls School District reports slight enrollment decline for 2026

This diversity is most evident in the language services the district provides. There are currently 3,051 English language learners speaking 115 different languages. While many of these students were born in the U.S., significant populations originate from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ethiopia. The top five languages spoken by these students are Spanish, Swahili, Amharic, Kunama, and Haitian Creole.

However, the official numbers might not tell the whole story. Dawn Marie Johnson, the first Indigenous woman on the school board, suggests the count for Native American students—currently at 4.7%—could be an undercount.

“If you’re not from a reservation, you’re not going to claim it sometimes. That’s something systemically that we haven’t fixed, but that’s not a Sioux Falls School District-only problem,” Johnson said.

The Economic Stakes of Student Poverty

The enrollment dip happens against a backdrop of significant economic hardship for the student body. More than 46% of K-12 students—roughly 10,933 children—rely on the free and reduced-price meal program. The need is most acute at the elementary level, where 51.3% of students qualify for the program.

When you pair these poverty rates with the specialized needs of the student body, the budgetary pressure becomes clear. As of December 1, 2025, the district was managing 4,437 students receiving special education services and 2,978 students on 504 plans. These services are resource-intensive, and as per-student funding drops due to lower enrollment, maintaining the quality of these supports becomes a tighter balancing act.

Staffing the Machine

Sioux Falls remains one of the city’s largest employers, maintaining a staff of 3,732. The teaching core consists of 1,936 educators, a majority of whom are highly credentialed; 1,269 hold master’s degrees. The experience gap is wide, ranging from 70 first-year teachers to a single veteran with over 51 years of experience.

Staff Category	Employee Count
Teachers	1,936
Education Support Professionals	541
Custodians and Managers	228
Specialists	249
Child Nutrition Employees	152
Clerical Staff	150
Administrators	101

The district’s reach extends beyond traditional classrooms. For funding and enrollment purposes, the district also accounts for students in specialized facilities, including 45 at Avera Behavioral Health, 42 at the Juvenile Justice Center, and students at the ARISE Shelter Care and Avera Adolescent Addiction Care programs.

The challenge for the board moving forward is simple but daunting: how to maintain “education excellence” and a massive staffing infrastructure while the number of children entering the system continues to lean downward.

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