BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A sharp drop in the number of Hispanic students reported in Alabama’s public schools this year reflects a change in federal reporting rules more than a sudden demographic shift, according to an analysis by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.
The council’s review of Alabama Department of Education enrollment data for the 2025-26 school year shows that while overall K-12 enrollment declined statewide, the new method for reporting race and ethnicity dramatically altered how some students are classified, making it difficult to determine whether Hispanic enrollment actually rose or fell.
The reporting change comes as school districts monitor enrollment closely amid heightened national and state attention to immigration and population changes across Alabama communities.
Enrollment figures affect funding, staffing decisions and planning for services such as English learner instruction and student supports.
Under updated federal guidelines approved in 2024, Alabama schools shifted to a new enrollment form that allows families to select multiple racial and ethnic identities rather than requiring students to choose an ethnicity – whether a student was or was not Hispanic or Latino – and a race.
The new form, shown below, combines previous racial and ethnicity categories into one question and allows students to choose multiple options.
Data show that as a result, the number of students classified as Hispanic fell sharply, while the number classified as “two or more races” increased substantially.
According to state education data, total enrollment in Alabama’s K-12 public schools dropped from 729,200 students in the 2024-25 school year to 722,300 students this year – a decline of nearly 7,000 students.
The report suggests some of that drop could be due to the CHOOSE Act, which allows K-12 students to use state-funded education savings accounts to attend private school or homeschool. About 3,000 public school students planned to use CHOOSE Act ESAs to attend private school, which could account for at least part of that decline.
Among demographic subgroups, the number of students classified as Hispanic dropped by 56,200 between last year and this year. Over the same period, the number of students identified as two or more races increased by 52,600.
When those two groups are combined, total enrollment declined by 3,600 students, indicating that much of the shift reflects changes in classification rather than a dramatic change in student population, PARCA said.
Alabama education officials told PARCA that about 1,000 more students statewide selected Hispanic as one of their racial or ethnic identities under the new reporting form, even though fewer students were ultimately classified as Hispanic in the publicly reported data.
In prior years, Hispanic students had been among the fastest-growing student groups in Alabama public schools.
The change also complicates local enrollment trends.
In Albertville, a Marshall County city with one of the highest concentrations of Hispanic residents in Alabama, public school enrollment declined by 207 students.
The report noted that the publicly available data do not clearly distinguish how much of that decline reflects families leaving the district versus students being reclassified under the new federal standards.
Other districts with large populations of Hispanic students saw similar drops.
Other demographic changes were more gradual. The number of white students declined by 5,200, while enrollment increased among Asian, Black, Native American, and other student groups.
A new racial category, Middle Eastern or North African, was added this year. Nearly 600 students chose that category to describe their race.
Because the reporting change creates a break in the data series, PARCA cautioned that the new enrollment figures should not be directly compared with prior years without accounting for the new classification system.
As districts navigate enrollment declines and an uncertain policy climate, the new data provide a picture shaped as much by how students are counted as by migration or population change.
The chart below shows district enrollment from 1995-96 through 2025-26. Click here if you’re unable to see the chart.
