The Iowa Department of Education released the certified K-12 enrollment numbers for Fall 2025 and what they reveal is pretty interesting.
First, Iowa’s total enrollment is down, consistent with state projections and national trends (fewer babies = fewer students). Enrollment in fall of 2025 is 515,221 down from 520,021 in 2024.
Second, public school district and public charter school certified enrollment is down 1.53 percent to 473,329.
Third, more than 44,500 public school students open enrolled to a public district or charter school outside their home school district, about 9 percent of the total 2025 certified enrollment.
Fourth, enrollment at Iowa’s accredited nonpublic schools was up from 39,356 in 2024 to 41,892 this fall, this represents just over 8 percent of the total 2025 certified enrollment. A total of 41,044 students used their Students First ESA at an accredited nonpublic school as of the October 1 certified enrollment date.
Open enrollment had a greater impact on Iowa’s 325 public school districts than education savings accounts did.
According to a breakdown of public school districts provided by the Iowa Department of Education no public school district had fewer than 10 students choosing to open enroll into another public district or public charter school, where as 210 (64.6%) districts had between 11-99 students choose that option and 115 (35.4%) of districts had 100 or more students open enroll.
There were 36 public school districts (11.1%) that had no students receiving an ESA living within their district boundaries, 111 public school districts (34.2%) had ten or less students living with their boundaries, and 106 public school districts (32.6%) had between 11-99, and 72 public school districts (22.2%) had 100 or more ESA recipients living within their boundaries.
One in six enrolled students used one of the school choice options available – open enrollment, charter schools, or an education savings account, while the rest stayed in their home district. This of course does not account for the number of students who are being homeschooled, an option utilized by a significant, but unreported, number of students.
What is clear is that parents are exercising their right to choose and the vast majority are keeping their students in a public school and most of those families are staying in their home district.