A new report released by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) suggests changes in federal student reporting may affect the reported number of Hispanic students in Alabama schools, a change which also led to an increase in students who identify as “two or more races.”
“Because of the classification change, it is unclear from the publicly reported data whether Hispanic enrollment rose or fell,” wrote Thomas Spencer, a senior research associate for PARCA and the author of the report. “Alabama State Department of Education [ALSDE] officials said that the number of students who checked the Hispanic box increased by about 1,000 statewide. In past years, Hispanic enrollment had grown more rapidly.”
According to the report, in 2025, Hispanic student enrollment was just over 84,000 students and enrollment for students of two or more races was over 21,900.
But in 2026, Hispanic student enrollment dropped to 26,458 while enrollment for students that are two or more races increased to 78,610.
Messages seeking comment were left with the ALSDE and School Superintendents of Alabama Monday.
The change in student reporting policy came in a March memo issued by ALSDE made to comply with standards set by the Office of Management and Budget in March 2024.
The ALSDE notice states “Hispanic will no longer be collected as a separate ethnicity question and will instead be included as a race/ethnicity option” and that the two or more races option will be removed and students who report more than one race will have each one documented separately.
Previously, the question was asked in two separate parts. The first question asked whether the student identifies their ethnicity as Hispanic or non-Hispanic, and the second question asked how the student identified racially.
The updated form now only asks one question, but allows respondents to check more than one box and adds Middle Eastern and North African as new racial categories.
Hispanic people often differ in how they choose to racially identify themselves.
“Hispanic individuals may consider themselves white. There are Latino Black people, they may consider themselves Native American, if they have indigenous roots, or Spanish or European,” Spencer said in a phone interview Monday.
Spencer said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown could have contributed to the dip in the number of Hispanic and Latino students, but it’s uncertain due to the new reporting rules.
“We had been kind of tracking the growth and enrollment of Hispanic students over the last couple of decades, frankly, and we kind of wondered about the trajectory this particular fall, considering the new attention that the current administration is paying to immigration and wondered what effect it would have,” he said. “Due to the new classifications, it’s really kind of hard to say, what if any effect that’s had. Obviously, there’s been a significant shift in the identification of students, but to what extent numerically it’s harder to tally.”
Another reason for the dip in Hispanic and Latino student enrollment could be due to how families could be told to fill out the form by the local boards of education.
“You can look at a major swing in the way Albertville reported. They went to more than one race strongly. Russellville is not as much of a heavily Hispanic district, but still, a lot of respondents counted only as Hispanic,” Spencer said.
In October, Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey told members of the State Board of Education that enrollment for the current school year has decreased by 5,800 students. The decrease is the largest drop in 40 years.
Mackey told board members that of the students, roughly 3,000 of them had taken money from the CHOOSE Act and enrolled in a private school. The remaining 2,100 students were unaccounted for.
The CHOOSE Act is a voucher-like program that allows students to claim up to $7,000 in tax credits for non-public education expenses including private school tuition.
Despite the drop, Spencer said the number of Hispanic people in Alabama will continue to increase regardless of current immigration to the state.
“Any kind of, you know, growth or change in Hispanic populations among students is not necessarily due to migration,” he said.“The Hispanic population grows through natural change, and maybe even at a greater rate than the white population. So regardless of whether or not we have large or small immigration rates, our Hispanic population will continue to grow as they’re American citizens or lawful permanent residents.”
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