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Menlo Park public schools are preparing for lower enrollment and are recognizing more students who need special education services.
During a recent Menlo Park City School District meeting, the school board was presented with the annual preliminary enrollment data and special education update.
Dwindling enrollment
From transitional kindergarten through eighth grade, enrollment is expected to decrease by 55 students in the 2025-26 school year, a decrease of about 2 percent, according to Superintendent Kristen Gracia. However, these numbers will change closer to the start of the school year in August, she clarified.
Decreasing birth rates paired with California’s high cost of living is leading to lower enrollment rates across the state, said Gracia. California’s Department of Finance projects a decline of over 500,000 students over the next decade if current trends of infertility and migration continue.
As of April, MPCSD anticipates a decline in enrollment for TK, kindergarten, second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth grade.
The 2024-25 school year has a total enrollment of 2,702 students and the anticipated enrollment for the following year is 2,647. Population statistic experts project a student population of 2,584. Since 2019, the total number of students has decreased by more than 200.
Tracking anticipated enrollment is necessary for the district to plan the number of classes per grade level, for budgeting, staffing, program planning and more. With the current estimated number of students, the district projects it will reduce three classes between TK and fifth grade, said Gracia.
“We are being conservative when making these decisions as we manage the constraints of our budget,” she added.
However, enrollment numbers are always fluctuating, Gracia said. By the start of the school year, the district may end up having to add more classes rather than reduce.
Re-enrollment occurs during March and April. As of April 17, 200 students had not re-enrolled for the next school year yet.
The district plans to have another enrollment update in September.
Special education update
Over the past six years, the percentage of Menlo Park students with an Individualized Education Program has steadily increased to about 9%, which is lower than the state average of 13%. An IEP is a legally binding document that maps out specific services that a child with a disability needs in order to learn in a classroom.
“We want to make sure we’re identifying any student that may need the services, so I don’t see the increase in special education as an issue,” said Stephanie Sheridan, assistant superintendent of student services.
Across the country, about 7 million children ages 3 to 21 received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That is about 15% of all public school students, according to Sheridan.
Nationally, the most common type of disability reported in students involves specific learning disabilities. Those may include dyslexia and difficulties writing and doing math.
Through special education parent surveys, the district found that families were largely satisfied with the program, including their experience communicating with service providers, case managers and the district.
Sheridan said MPCSD also implemented a parent network to allow families with special education students to connect with each other. The district also hosts professional development workshops for parents to learn how to transfer classroom skills to their home.
Parents have the opportunity to work with behavior specialists, speech pathologists and physical therapists to learn how they can support and engage with their kids at home.
Sheridan reports that despite improvements to the special education program, the district has been identified as being significantly disproportionate by the state. This means that there is an inappropriate overrepresentation and over-identification of ethnic minority children in special education programs.
In Menlo Park schools, Latinx students are 3.5 times more likely to be in special education, she said. MPCSD is actively working toward lowering this disproportionality and has been able to decrease the risk rate from five years ago when it was nearly 5 times more likely for a Latinx student to be in special education.
Sheridan clarified that this over identification comes in relation to the overall student population. Currently, there are 51 students eligible for an IEP under Specific Learning Disability and 24 of them are Latinx — meaning 47% of students who are eligible for an IEP under Specific Learning Disability are Latinx. However, the total percentage of Latinx students at MPCSD is 20%.
According to Sheridan, this is a common trend in San Mateo County and across the state. This disproportionality is not due to language barriers, she said.
Moving forward, MPCSD will be focusing on addressing earlier intervention and investing more money into it. By acting early, the district is able to provide more support to students before they enter into special education.
