Catholic School Association working to recover |
The National Catholic Educational Association will welcome Lincoln Snyder as its new chief executive this week, as the agency seeks to rebound from its biggest one-year enrollment drop since the 1970s. Amid the pandemic, more than 200 schools closed permanently and enrollment at the 5,981 remaining schools fell by 6.4%, or more than 111,000 students, for the 2020-2021 academic year, according to the NCEA, which oversees Catholic schools across the United States. Catholic school enrollment decreased by more than 8% in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Total enrollment was about 1.63m, down from a peak of more than 5.2m in the early 1960s. The overall enrollment drop was 8.1% at the 4,812 Catholic elementary schools, and 2.5% at the 1,169 secondary schools. The reduction in school staffing was relatively modest however, at 2.3%, due in part to the availability of the federal Paycheck Protection Program in the spring of 2020.