Dena Levitz, The Examiner
2008-04-03 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Enrollment in D.C.’s traditional public schools is even lower than the figure administrators calculated in the fall, according to a new audit that shows student numbers at 49,422, down more than 5,500 from the previous year.

Six months after schools had to report their student figures, the State Superintendent’s Office made public its official enrollment audit on Wednesday, providing a full accounting of the population of both the charter and traditional public school system.

The loss of students in D.C. Public Schools while charters gained about 2,000 students marked the continuation of a trend seen in the past several years. The charter system is now teaching 21,947 children.

Education administrators don’t yet have the computer technology in place to follow and conclusively understand students’ movements into and out of schools, but it has long been believed by experts the charters are swallowing up many of those lost by DCPS.

The independent audit also points to many ways in which students are being lost or poorly tracked through the city’s educational landscape.

For instance, 287 students were documented on rosters for two schools at the same time, resulting in an overestimation of the school system’s total registration. This total is up from the 240 duplicates found in last year’s tally. The net result of the duplicate registrations is that DCPS will get $2.6 million less in federal funds than it expected next year, according to auditors.

Another major deficiency cited in the report is that 502 students attending classes had not proved their residency in the city, which is required by law.

State Superintendent Deborah Gist, in a written statement, emphasized the importance of the audit — now in its seventh year — as a “tool that helps us determine the appropriate and adequate level of funding for all of our public schools,” she said.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com