When Valerie Wanza started as a teacher in Florida's Broward County Public Schools in 1992, the district was at the beginning of what would be explosive growth in student population over the next decade. 

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Broward County Public Schools saw such an increase in enrollment that by 2004, more than 100 of its 315 schools were deemed "critically overcrowded." 

Now, 34 years later as the district's chief strategy and innovation officer, Wanza is part of a team of administrators working to turn around an enrollment decline that began in the 2015-16 school year. The student population plummeted by 17.5% over the next decade and is forecast to continue decreasing through at least the 2030-31 school year, according to district data.

The district attributed the drop to various factors: lower birth rates leading to fewer children entering schools, rising housing costs that make it harder for families to live in the desirable area bordering the Atlantic Ocean, fewer immigrant students due to shifts in federal policies, and growing competition from private school choice options.

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And with the area's school choice proliferation, Wanza said, Broward County Public Schools is "no longer the only game in town."

Now, to stay financially healthy, the district is taking a comprehensive approach that includes consolidating and closing some school campuses, cutting at least 1,000 staff positions, and implementing other measures to save money. It's also attempting to boost enrollment by vigorously recruiting new students through media campaigns, personalized phone calls, and hosting events to drum up interest in and excitement for the district's schools.

Broward is even turning to an outside vendor for help. Earlier this year, the district approved a one-year contract with student recruitment firm Caissa K12 to help connect with families who have left its public schools, determine their reasons for doing so, attempt to resolve those concerns and inform them about the district's benefits and schooling options. 

The performance-based contract said Broward County Public Schools will pay Caissa K12 $850 per recruited student who enrolls in a district school, up to 176 students or a maximum payment of $150,000. 

“If we aren’t real about, No. 1, recognizing what adjustments we need to make, and then be bold enough to make them, we’re going to become the Kmart … of the public schools,” Wanza said, referring to the once-dominant discount retailer that filed for bankruptcy in 2002 amid growing competition and other pressures.

Reasons behind a costly enrollment decline

The enrollment decline that Broward County Public Schools is experiencing mirrors the challenges faced by many other school districts across the country.

While falling birth rates and rising school choice are often to blame, the multitude of factors can be complex and specific to each region's ability to draw new residents with young families. Nationally, enrollment in traditional public schools is expected to drop from 54.7 million in 2021 to 49.4 million in 2035, according to a 2025 analysis from the Brookings Institution based on U.S. Census and other federal data.

On the other hand, some states are predicted to see increases in public school student populations between fall 2022 and fall 2031. Among those are Idaho (+11%), North Dakota (+7.4%) and Tennessee (+2%), according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Enrollment in Florida's public schools is projected to increase by 3% over the same time period.

From 2015-16 through 2025-26, Broward County Public Schools lost 17.5% of its student population, or 38,640 students. That translated to a loss of $352 million in per-pupil revenue over that 11-year span. In fiscal year 2026, which ended June 30, the district expected to show an $80 million shortfall because of continued enrollment loss.

The district has already closed seven schools since the 2025-26 school year and is exploring other closures, consolidations and grade configurations for the future. New data released this fall shows district enrollment dropped by another 10,272 for the 2026-27 school year.

Even so, with 315 schools educating 224,324 students, including at charter schools, Broward County Public Schools is still the 6th largest district in the U.S., according to its website.

Broward leaders are carefully analyzing data that can explain why families aren't enrolling their students in county schools. Joseph Beck, the district's director of demographics and enrollment planning, said his team is constantly coming up with ways to look at the data differently to better understand why students are coming or going.

For instance, the data shows that about 20,000 students, on average, withdraw from Broward County Public Schools annually. That number, which doesn't include graduating seniors, has been consistent over many years, Beck said.

The district also investigates how many new students enroll each year, a figure that can be affected by immigration policy changes. For instance, the district had 3,400 fewer newcomer students in 2025-26 than it did the previous year, Beck said.

The data also shows that 1,700 students enrolled in the 2024-25 school year transferred to a private school the following year using a Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship to help pay tuition.

At the state level, about 561,000 students participated in taxpayer-funded scholarship programs during the 2025-26 school year, according to a Florida Senate analysis. That same year, the state's public schools enrolled about 2.8 million students, state data shows.

Across Broward County, some 35,000 students participated in one of Florida's taxpayer-supported private school choice programs in the 2025-26 school year. 

Beck said the data further shows that many of the county's private school choice participants weren't previously enrolled in the district's public schools. "They just completely bypass us altogether," Beck said.

He and other Broward County Public School leaders are aiming to reverse that.

Doubling down on student recruitment

Farrah Wilson, Broward County Public Schools' director of marketing and strategic communications, rapidly ticks off the efforts being made to court new students and their families. There are mailers, social media campaigns, TV ads, school tours, home visits and more.

As public schools across the country get more intentional and strategic about recruitment, they are taking a playbook from private schools. That includes hosting school tours, having "shadow days" for prospective students, and sending mailers to families encouraging them to add public schools to their list of options. 

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We have the best programs. We have the best teachers. We have the best facilities, athletics. We offer a comprehensive experience that many of our charter and private schools can't offer.

Farrah Wilson

Broward County Public Schools' director of marketing and strategic communications

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Broward County is home to 245 private schools serving about 54,000 students, or about 18% of students in the county, according to Private School Review, a site that provides information on K-12 private schools for families. 

But competition for students can also come from nearby public school systems.

In a mailer that Broward sent out in mid-July, it targeted families living across the district's borders to the north in Palm Beach County and to the south in Miami-Dade County. 

"This is just a way to let parents know that there are options, and if they are interested, they can go to one of our schools on the county line and participate and take one of the open seats," Wilson said. 

The mailers led to one student from Palm Beach County and 17 students from Miami-Dade County enrolling in Broward County Public Schools, the district said. 

While it might seem unfair to try to poach other districts' students, Broward administrators said it goes both ways. The School District of Palm Beach County has likewise attempted to recruit Broward students living near its border, Broward officials said.

The Palm Beach system shares information about its schools through various channels, and marketing reaches families across the region, including those in neighboring counties like Broward, said Sean Cooley, chief of communications and enrollment for the Palm Beach district, in an Oct. 29 email. However, Palm Beach does not track how many Broward residents enroll in its schools.

"Many families living near county boundaries commute to work within Palm Beach County, making our high-performing schools an attractive and convenient option for their children's education," Cooley said.

Florida has an open boundary policy that lets families enroll in schools outside of their home school district as long as there are open seats available. "We're used to having open lines, if you will. Now we just got more intentional about it," said Wanza.

Broward is also expanding its school choice options by catering to what families want. The district has an online school as well as 32 schools offering dual language programs. It has magnet schools, a high school that operates on a 4-day-a-week schedule, several K-8 schools, a grade 6-12 school and a K-12 school.

In another enrollment initiative, the district is encouraging and supporting each school to tell its own stories through various marketing and communications efforts. For example, on "testimonial Tuesdays," students, families and staff share on social media why their school is great.

Initiatives like this enable families to make connections with individual schools, not necessarily the district as a whole, Wilson said. Building excitement at individual schools is "the secret sauce" to boosting enrollments, she said. 

Every school also has an "Enroll Now" button on its website. If a family clicks the link and shares their contact information, the school's principal is automatically notified and is encouraged to reach out directly to the family, answer any questions they have, offer a tour and make other recruiting efforts that will "close the deal," Wilson said.

One reason Broward is taking such an intentional approach to marketing, said administrators, is to combat misinformation or outdated information about district schools, including about its academic performance. Broward County Public Schools has earned an "A" rating from the Florida Department of Education for three consecutive years and continues to "demonstrate strong academic growth," the district said in an email to K-12 Dive.

Negative perceptions of the public school system are what the district is "always battling against," Wilson said. This is why the district is heavily investing in marketing and recruiting, she said. 

"We have the best programs. We have the best teachers. We have the best facilities, athletics. We offer a comprehensive experience that many of our charter and private schools can't offer.”