Enrollment at DMPS Continues to Grow

While larger, more urban school districts across the nation have seen a decline in student enrollment in recent years, Des Moines Public Schools continues to buck that trend with a third straight year of triple-digit enrollment increases.

Preliminary numbers reported by DMPS to the Iowa Department of Education indicate a total of 32,404 students enrolled for the 2013-14 school year, an increase of 342 over last year.

Last year DMPS enrollment increased by 515 students and the year before that by 571 students, the largest increase of any school district in Iowa.

To put the enrollment increase in perspective, the gain of 1,450 new students at DMPS over the past five years is larger than the total enrollment at more than 280 school districts in Iowa.

DMPS is the largest school district in the state, educating nearly twice as many students as the second largest district.

Under state law, certified enrollment is used in the formula that determines state funding for public school districts. Certified enrollment is based on the number of students living in each school district. It also includes the “weighting,” or additional funding for students in certain programs, such as students who are English Language Learners.

The certified enrollment count is taken by Iowa school districts on the first day of October each school year. Official numbers are confirmed by the Iowa Department of Education and will be reported later this year, meaning there may be small changes to these preliminary figures.