Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach have lost about 38,000 students as fewer students arrive from abroad, prompting school closures and cuts.

South Florida school districts are closing schools and cutting jobs after losing about 38,000 students, amid a sharp decline in the number of students arriving from abroad.

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Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties began the academic year with significantly fewer students than the previous year. The losses have already prompted Miami-Dade to close or merge nine schools and review the future of 27 more, while Broward has proposed closing 10 schools. Palm Beach has frozen hiring and eliminated 76 school library positions.

The decline is particularly significant in South Florida, which is home to the largest Venezuelan and Haitian communities in the United States. Both groups lost Temporary Protected Status (TPS) during President Donald Trump’s second term. TPS for Venezuelans ended in November 2025, while protections for Haitians ended this summer.

Miami-Dade, the third-largest school system in the United States, lost 14,365 students last academic year, with enrollment falling from 335,474 to 321,109, according to its statistical yearbook. The district started the current school year in August with another 18,910 fewer students.

The district also had 515 fewer teachers over the same period.

Superintendent José Dotres said Miami-Dade received about 3,000 students from abroad during the last academic year, compared with between 14,000 and 22,000 annually in previous school years.

The district’s enrollment includes 172,186 students who speak Spanish at home, more than half of its total student population. Another 8,513 speak Haitian Creole.

Broward recorded 223,890 students on the 10th day of the school year, 12,658 fewer than on the same date a year earlier, according to a memorandum submitted to the school board. The district estimates it has more than 60,000 unoccupied student places.

Palm Beach lost 6,959 students, more than twice the 2,900-student decline it had projected in its budget.

The decline is also reflected in Florida’s English-as-a-second-language programs. The state’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, its official forecasting agency, calculated this month that the program lost the equivalent of 22,084 full-time students in a single academic year.

Overall enrollment in Florida’s public schools fell 2.41% during that period, the largest decline in five years.

The reduction in student numbers has also been linked to other factors, including the cost of living, declining birth rates and school vouchers that Florida made available to all families in 2023. The vouchers allow families to use public money to pay for private school.

The enrollment losses are putting pressure on school district finances because Florida distributes state funding according to the number of students enrolled. Palm Beach estimates it could lose more than $100 million, after losing $66 million in funding last academic year.

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