# @nbcwashington on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DefAPK2l0hW
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/71689968-nbcwashington-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/4b0b86a3b2.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-10-14T18:15:13.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) — https://gondola.cc/nbcwashington

## Caption

School leaders across the DMV region are having to make some tough choices as fewer students are enrolling in school, which often means less funding from the state.⁠
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The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) superintendent told the school board last week their current enrollment is several thousand students less than they expected.⁠
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When FCPS started planning for the current school year, back in June, they had 176,000 students. But by the end of summer, enrollment had dropped to 172,000 students.⁠
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“We were off by several thousand students, which created a need to adjust in real time,” said Superintendent Michelle Reid to the board.⁠
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And by that, she meant not hiring as many people. Reid said FCPS is now starting a “workforce rebalancing committee” to look at how they can instead move staff around.⁠
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“If we have fewer students, we don’t want to continue hiring more staff,” she said. “I know last year we reassigned a number of assistant principals because we were overstaffed in some of those areas.”⁠
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Data from FCPS shows enrollment has steadily dropped four years in a row.⁠
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It’s also a nationwide trend, according to the Education Commission of the States. In the past five years, there’s been a 2.3% drop.⁠
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And in the next five years, experts are projecting a 5.5% drop.⁠
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“Probably the largest national reason is that there is a decline in birth rates. So it's just a demographic decline,” said Joshua Glazer, an education policy professor at George Washington University. “We've seen a big increase in homeschooling since the pandemic, and private schooling of course, too.”⁠
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Glazer said in the DMV, cost of living could also be a factor, with families not able to afford homes there.⁠
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Click our link in bio for the full story. ⁠
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#washingtondc #maryland #virginia #pgcounty #dc #districtofcolumbia #dmv #northernvirginia #alexandriava #northernva #arlingtonva #fairfaxcounty #nova  #md #mocomd #pgcountymd

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## Tags

dmv, northernvirginia, pgcountymd, maryland, mocomd, fairfaxcounty, virginia, northernva, dc, md, alexandriava, pgcounty, nova, washingtondc, arlingtonva, districtofcolumbia

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