Iowa Department of Education says state enrollment decline may be over

A 13-year trend of fewer kids in Iowa schools is about to reverse according to the state Department of Education.

Iowa is on the verge of a five-year growth spurt for school enrollment according to projections made by the department. The projections show 11,411 more students in schools by the 2015-2016 school year, a 2.4 percent increase.

The department is predicting several Eastern Iowa schools to be among the top growing districts during this time period. College Community, Linn-Mar, Iowa City, Waterloo and Davenport are among the top 10 districts in the state seeing the largest amount of student growth.

Iowa City is scheduled to see the biggest bump among the local group with 875 projected new students.  While not in the top in terms of numbers, Clear Creek Amana schools will have one of the largest percentage increases with 381 new students by 2016 for an almost 25 percent growth.

But this growth is mainly restricted to Iowa's urban areas. Even with the projected increase, 58 percent of Iowa's school districts still will lose students by 2016.

Cedar Rapids is the only district among the state's eight urban school districts projected shrink. The model shows the district with 265 fewer students, a 1.6 percent loss. Considering the district lost 120 students last year, 265 students over a five year period would signal a lower rate of enrollment decline.

Eastern Iowa Enrollment