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Widespread Drop Reported in US Public Schools' Kindergarten Enrollment

VOA News

   For parents and teachers, navigating schooling during a global pandemic
   has proved to be a challenge. While many students returned to school
   online amid the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts across the country
   have reported double-digit declines among their preschool and
   kindergarten enrollment.

   Public school enrollment across the Midwestern state of Missouri is
   down by more than 28,000 students. In Gaston County, North Carolina,
   the kindergarten population is down 16% from last year. Los Angeles
   Unified, the nation's second-largest school system, lost nearly 11,000
   pupils.

   While there has been no comprehensive national data on the trend,
   research by NPR, in addition to independent news stations across the
   United States, points toward the coronavirus pandemic as the cause for
   the decrease in the number of the country's youngest students in public
   schools.

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