For 17th Straight Year, Flagler Schools’ Enrollment Fails To Grow Despite Continuing Population Surge

For the 17h straight year, and despite population growth that ranks Flagler County among the fastest growing in the state, Flagler County’s public schools’ enrollment has failed to grow. 

At a school board meeting on Tuesday, Board member Colleen Conklin said development in the county was continuing “in leaps and bounds.” She had just attended the periodic meeting of local government representatives to discuss how that development has been affecting school enrollment and the fees builders pay to defray the cost of new schools–if new schools are needed. 

What Conklin did not say is that in spite of growth that added 16,000 new residents to the county in three years, in spite of Palm Coast, the county and Flagler Beach issuing certificates of occupancy for some 3,200 housing units in 2023 alone, and in spite of similar growth trends in 2024, Flagler County schools are simply not attracting enough students to reflect that growth. 

Students are going to private schools, to virtual schools, and staying home to homeschool: the number of homeschooled students has grown  58 percent in six years, from 706 in the 2017-18 school year to 1,119 this school year. They’re just not enrolling in Flagler’s traditional public schools.