Aprieonna Herbert trudged home from her school bus one recent sunny afternoon, then collapsed into bed.
The seventh grader is still adjusting to waking up in the dark to catch the bus at 5:50 a.m. each morning, which rumbles down her quiet street of bungalows and double-wide trailers in Belle Rose. She lives less than a mile from Belle Rose Middle School, yet the bus takes her 10 miles away to Assumption Parish High School in neighboring Napoleonville.
Like nearly every other h school district, Assumption Parish had too many schools for its dwindling student population. So last year, the school board made a once-unthinkable decision: It shut down all three of the district’s middle schools, relocating their students to the high school campus.
“A lot of people were upset,” said Aprieonna’s mother, April Anderson, who years ago attended Belle Rose Middle School. “That school has been there for a very long time.”
Seventh-grader Aprieonna Herbert stands with her mother, April Anderson, in Belle Rose on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE
A rural community missing its middle schools.
A superintendent cutting her budget to the bone.
A city bracing for painful school closures.
All are symptoms of the same chronic condition: Across h, at a stark and accelerating rate as families leave the state, the number of births plummets and interest in alternative schooling booms.
This school year, enrollment fell in more than 90% of school districts, leaving the state with 11,000 fewer students than the year before, according to a Times-Picayune | Advocate analysis of , which showed statewide enrollment declines in nine of the past 10 years.
The state’s public schools have lost a staggering 60,000 students over the past decade — enough to fill 850 school buses or 3,000 classrooms.
Nearly 100 schools across Louisian have closed since 2020, when the pandemic turbocharged enrollment declines, according to a state tally. More closures and cutbacks are likely as schools continue to shed students.
Public school enrollment has slipped nationwide, but the decline is especially steep in h, which has one of the country’s highest out-migration rates. Louisian’s student count plunged by 7% over a decade, more than three times the nationwide rate of decline, according to from 2024. By contrast, enrollment held steady or increased in most other Southern states, including 4% growth in Florida and 6% in Texas.
Louisian’s public schools, which enrolled just under 666,000 students this fall, are not the only ones struggling. Enrollment also is down at private and parochial schools, which lost about 9% of students over the past decade, despite their popularity in heavily Catholic south h.
“These enrollment declines seem to be here to stay in h,” said Maggie Cicco, a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, which studies education finance across the country. “It’s really up to districts how they're going to respond to this new reality.”
Belle Rose Middle School in Assumption Parish was shut down last year. Seventh and eighth grade students now are bused to the high school campus.
Javier Gallegos
Yet a few new school types are growing. The number of homeschooled students in h soared by 70% over the past decade, while enrollment at unregulated private schools, including trendy “microschools,” has surged by 30% just since 2023, according to state data.
And within the shrinking pool of public school students, more are choosing charter schools. The independently operated public schools now enroll about 98,000 students, up 65% from 2013.
Taken together, these trends have created an existential crisis for traditional public schools. h bases public school budgets on enrollment numbers: Fewer students lead to fewer dollars, even as insurance and other costs rise. that once helped to plug budget holes are long gone.
Many districts have tried to woo families with new offerings — Assumption Parish Schools, for example, started a virtual academy — but it’s rarely been enough to offset the losses. Instead, underenrolled schools end up cutting programs and positions. When that’s still not enough, schools shutter.
For most school systems, the declines show no sign of letting up.
“I don’t see any daylight on the horizon,” said Assumption Parish School Board member Honoray Lewis.
Enrollment loss brings painful cuts
Much of Louisiana is shrinking: saw their populations go down last year, according to census data. Old-timers like Lewis get used to seeing people leave communities in areas that have long been on the downswing, like Assumption.
A rural parish that sits south of Baton Rouge in the heart of “Bayou Country,” Assumption is known for its abundant sugar cane fields and strong Cajun roots — but not for a thriving local economy. Its population has slid nearly 15% since 2010 as some families uproot in search of jobs. Lewis’ adult niece and nephew were among them.
“They packed up,” he said, “and they took eight kids total with them.”
The population of Assumption Parish has fallen over the past decade as some residents look for economic opportunities elsewhere. Staff photo by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
h was the only Southern state in recent years to lose more residents than it gained. Allison Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans, said that is primarily due to the state’s weak economy.
“If there are not jobs here, families can't move here,” she said.
State leaders have recently announced several big economic development projects, including a and , that are expected to create hundreds of new jobs. Yet demographers note that not every project boosts the local population — or school enrollment. In Plaquemines Parish, construction of brought in thousands of temporary workers, yet the school district continued to lose students.
Meanwhile, as the U.S. birth rate , the number of births in Louisian has . And international immigration, which helped mitigate some population loss in h, is expected to dwindle due to the immigration crackdown from President Donald Trump’s administration.
An influx of Hispanic students, including some recent immigrants, had been the main source of growth for some districts. The group ballooned by 80% over the past decade, adding an average of 3,800 students annually, according to state data — until this school year, when their numbers dipped for the first time in recent memory.
“Declining birth rate plus immigration enforcement equals significant loss of students,” said Olin Parker, an Orleans Parish School Board member.
A school bus in Assumption Parish. Staff photo by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
When school districts lose students, they also lose money. State aid, which is allocated based on enrollment, is the main funding source for schools in poorer communities with limited local tax revenue.
Even minor enrollment declines can be destabilizing. Grant Parish lost 146 students over the previous two school years, depriving the small, rural district in north h of about $1.2 million in state funding. Yet its expenses remained largely the same due to fixed costs like utility bills and school buses.
To make up the difference, the district has pinched pennies wherever it can, said Superintendent Erin Stokes. Next school year, she plans to cut staff at almost every school.
“Believe me,” she said, “we are bare bones over here.”
The budget crunch is even more dire in Assumption, where school enrollment plunged 30% over the past decade — one of the steepest declines of any district.
Superintendent John Barthelemy warned in a February 2024 school board meeting that the decline had sharply reduced how much money the district would get from the state. The district was forced to postpone building repairs, lay off employees and rotate support staffers, like nurses and instructional coaches, among schools.
“We’re trying to run the same system with $4 million less,” he said. “What do you cut? You cut personnel. You cut programs. You cut experiences for kids.”
Confronting the crisis
School district leaders face no easy answers as they grapple over classrooms thinning out while bills pile up. Two main schools of thought have emerged about the best path forward.
One camp says public schools must compete in an increasingly crowded education marketplace.
Stokes has taken that tack: Her district put up a billboard ad and brought in a videographer to promote Grant Parish schools on social media. Michael Hefner, a demographer who works with h school systems, argues that districts facing enrollment declines should play offense — creating specialized magnet schools or career education programs, for example — rather than simply scale back.
“When you talk about just reducing staffing, consolidating, that helps you with your current situation,” he said, but it won’t “change the trajectory of the crisis.”
In response to steep enrollment declines, Assumption Parish Schools closed its three middle schools and relocated seventh and eighth graders to the high school campus. Staff photo by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
Many school boards favor that approach, with some giving superintendents bonuses if they boost enrollment. By contrast, boards that try to shrink their districts are likely to face blowback.
Vernon Travis, a longtime Vernon Parish school board member, recalls being told years ago not to say the word “consolidation” if he wanted to be reelected. In rural communities, he explained, schools and churches are sacrosanct.
“You mess with either one of them,” he said, “you got a fight on your hands.”
Yet others say that trying to win back families is a losing battle. School district marketing campaigns are unlikely to keep families from moving if they can’t find local jobs, critics say. And investments in specialized programs don’t always pay off. The Lafayette Parish school board, for example, ended a Chinese-language magnet program in 2024 that cost about $510,000 annually but only enrolled 62 students.
“By and large, districts have already tried recapturing their students and it hasn't worked,” said Parker, the Orleans Parish School Board member who, in his work as a consultant, advises other school districts on enrollment issues.
Some education analysts say district leaders need to accept the reality of reduced enrollment and start downsizing. They should start by shrinking the labor force, strategically cutting unnecessary positions rather than relying on attrition, said Cicco, the research fellow at Edunomics Lab.
Then they should consider closing underenrolled schools, which cost more per student to operate and often offer fewer enrichment classes and extracurriculars, she said. Trying to avoid layoffs and closures can backfire, Cicco added.
“It gets delayed, delayed, delayed,” she said, “and then it becomes this big, overwhelming, unpopular, disruptive change.”
A fleet of school buses prepares to take students home at Assumption High School in Assumption Parish on Wednesday, March 31, 2026. Staff photo by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
Communities often fight school closures. In Lafayette, a resident sued last month to stop the shuttering of Comeaux High School, prompting the school board to rescind an earlier vote to close the school. It was the district’s second attempt to close Comeaux: The board scrapped initial plans to close it in 2024 after public outcry. In New Orleans, to keep the Leah Chase School open after community members donated money to fill a budget hole caused by low enrollment.
In Assumption, Superintendent Barthelemy tried to preempt any backlash to the middle school consolidation. Relocating seventh and eighth graders to a separate building on the high school campus would cut costs and give students access to resources — honors classes, school counselors, a band and robotics program — that their separate middle schools couldn’t afford, he explained during a public meeting.
But parents expressed concerns about the long commute and putting middle schoolers on the same campus as older teens. Before the board voted 6-3 in favor of the consolidation in January 2025, Dennis Landry, a local business owner and former school board member, warned that some parents would pull their children out of the public schools.
“If you go with the plan,” he said, “you have to realize the consequences of that.”
New options emerge
Yellow school buses began traversing Assumption Parish last August, driving seventh and eighth graders past the shuttered middle schools to the sprawling high school campus, home of the Mustangs and the Sugarland Marching Band.
Some parents remained skeptical, but Aprieonna Herbert was happy to say goodbye to the rundown Belle Rose Middle School building. Not to mention, she now has access to high school courses like computer science and agriculture.
“It’s good,” she said. “I just don't like getting up early.”
First grader Van Hurry, left, sets up his laptop as he and fifth grader Keegan Bordis do schoolwork at The Anchor Learning Center in Napoleonville on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE
Yet even as the district contracted, enrollment kept sinking. This fall, Assumption schools had 170 fewer students than the year before, a 6% decline. (Statewide enrollment fell 1.6% year over year.)
While some families are leaving the area, others are opting out of traditional education. Assumption had nearly 100 registered homeschool students last school year, an 80% increase from five years earlier. (The state hasn’t released homeschool data for this year.) During the same period, enrollment fell 13% at the local private school, St. Elizabeth, according to state data.
Lauren Daigle Talbot isn’t surprised.
The former accountant and mother of two previously taught at St. Elizabeth and the now-closed Napoleonville Middle School. She noticed common problems: anxious kids taking too many tests, stressed teachers struggling to meet dozens of students’ unique needs.
At the same time, she saw more parents seriously consider homeschooling, which exploded in popularity nationwide during the pandemic. Last year, she decided to create a space for families desperately seeking a new approach to education.
“This kind of fell into place,” she said, “when things were really starting to crumble everywhere.”
Lauren Talbot, director of The Anchor Learning Center, works with sixth grader Kinsley Johnson on math at the center in Napoleonville on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE
The Anchor Learning Center is similar to the private “microschools” cropping up in h — and across the country — that mostly cater to homeschool families and are not regulated or monitored by the state. By 2024, such schools in h, more than doubling their pre-pandemic count. (The Anchor is not registered as a school of any kind, acting instead as a private service provider.)
Most families send their children to Talbot’s center four half-days a week, where the students take online classes, get help from Talbot or her colleagues when they need it and socialize with other kids. Parents choose the curriculum, which might come from a virtual charter school or a Christian publisher.
Talbot had hoped to sign up 10 students when she opened the Anchor in Napoleonville in August, but demand was so strong she soon launched a second site in nearby Pierre Part. She even inquired about renting one of the shuttered middle schools, but was told the building wasn’t available.
The Anchor now serves 56 students, Talbot said. Nearly all of them are registered homeschoolers who previously attended public school.
“People are waking up,” she said. “They are realizing that just because it's always been this way, it doesn't have to continue to be.”