For the second year in a row, the East Baton Rouge Parish school district is starting classes with far fewer students than the year before.

East Baton Rouge Parish schools had 36,026 students enrolled at 74 schools as of Sept. 1. That compares to Sept. 1, 2025, when the district started with 38,244 students enrolled at 77 schools. That is a decline of 2,218 students, or 5.8%.

These numbers are not final. Official enrollment counts for public schools in Louisiana occur twice a year — on Oct. 1 and Feb. 1. Each student gone equates to thousands of dollars in lost state education funding.

Last year saw a 3.6% year-over-year decline. If declines continue at the current pace, East Baton Rouge will lose, perhaps this year or next, its longstanding perch as the second-largest traditional school district in Louisiana.

If Audubon and Bridge had stayed, enrolling the same number of students they did last year, overall enrollment in East Baton Rouge would have still declined by more than 1,400 students.

In addition to the departure of Audubon and Bridge, another charter school, Helix Legal Academy, closed last year and merged with the high school it fed into, Helix Mentorship & Maritime Academy. The merged school, now with students in sixth to 12th grades, has 479 students, 97 fewer than its combined enrollment a year ago.

At the same, a new charter school, Harvest Commons School, opened up this year on the edge of downtown Baton Rouge. It is one of 11 charter schools currently under contract with the district. Harvest Commons had 73 students enrolled as of Sept. 1, about 10 more than when the school year started on Aug. 6, but about half the 150 students school leaders had hoped to attract for their first year.

Charter schools are public schools run privately via charters, or contracts.

Widespread losses

Forty-three of the 73 Baton Rouge schools that operated last year and this year — 63% — have lost students.

Six schools have seen their enrollment decline by more than 100 students: LaBelle Aire Elementary, Woodlawn High, Park Forest Elementary, Liberty High, Great Hearts Harveston and McKinley High.

LaBelle Aire lost the most, declining from 435 students last year to 277 this year.

The declines at LaBelle Aire and Park Forest elementary schools are notable because they are among six schools in the Belaire area that underwent significant changes as part of the district’s ongoing Realignment initiative. All six schools have new start times, with elementary schools starting earlier while middle and high schools start much later.

In addition, the four elementary schools, all feeders to Belaire High, have larger attendance zones but are teaching students in fewer grades.

LaBelle Aire is now concentrating on just grades 3 to 5, while nearby Villa del Rey Elementary is concentrating on lower grades, pre-K to 2. The attendance zones for the two schools have been merged. As part of the change, Villa del Rey is now a “foundational learning center,” meaning that its core classes are taught by two teachers each.

LaBelle Aire’s Principal Teviron Ross said she had expected the school would lose some students, but said realignment is bringing an “exciting chapter” to LaBelle Aire, allowing it to zero in on the needs of a smaller age range and “create learning experiences that meet our students’ needs.” She noted that LaBelle Aire improved last year from a D to a C state letter grade, and the new setup should help it continue to grow.

“We are excited about the addition of our new STEAM magnet program, featuring STEM, dance and visual and performing arts,” Ross said. “We are confident that LaBelle Aire will continue to be a place where students thrive.”

In the Belaire area, only Greenbrier Elementary grew, adding 20 students. Like LaBelle Aire, it now educates students only in grades 3 to 5.

High schools across the parish saw some of the sharpest enrollment declines. Baton Rouge Magnet and Capital high schools were the only two that added students, 20 and 28 more, respectively.

Woodlawn High, which had 1,120 students on Sept. 1, is experiencing a dramatic multiyear decline. It has lost 139 students in the past year and is down 333 students from its peak in fall 2022.

Woodlawn High is the largest school in the city of St. George and would have been the centerpiece of the proposed St. George school district that voters decisively rejected in May. Four of the five traditional public schools in St. George lost students compared to a year ago. Only Shenandoah Elementary grew, adding 63 students.

Overall, traditional schools in the East Baton Rouge district educate about 30,500 students, while district-sponsored charter schools educate about 5,500 students. Compared to a year ago, traditional schools lost almost 1,600 students — a 5% decline — while charter schools lost almost 700 students — a 10% decline.

The East Baton Rouge Parish school that grew the most in enrollment this past year was BASIS Materra, which is located in St. George. It now enrolls 1,040 students, 86 more than a year ago. Enrollment there, though, varies widely by grade. On Sept. 1, it had 155 students in 6th grade but just four in 11th grade.