Richland County: 2.6% less students were enrolled in 2024-25 school year

There were 16,772 students enrolled in Richland County schools in the 2024-25 school year, 2.6% less than the previous year, according to reports from the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce.

Of all the students enrolled in the 2024-25 school year, 51% were boys, 49% were girls.

Data also showed that non-Hispanic white students made up 80.3% of the student body, the largest percentage in Richland County schools, followed by non-Hispanic Black students at 8.2%, multiracial students at 8.1%, Hispanic students at 3.1% and Asian or Pacific Islander students at 0.3%.

Stingel Elementary School had the highest enrollment among the 40 schools in Richland County in the 2024-25 school year, welcoming 922 students.

Public school enrollment in Ohio fell to 1.47 million students in fiscal year 2025, down 1%, marking the largest drop since fiscal year 2022.

According to a report from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, enrollment fell most sharply in rural and small-town districts. In contrast, joint vocational districts recorded growth, with chartered nonpublic schools recording the largest enrollment increases.

According to an analysis by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Ohio students have not fully recovered from pandemic-related learning losses. In the 2024-25 school year, about 55.3% of students were proficient in math and 60% in reading, both several points below 2018-19 levels.

Ohio ranks 23rd nationally in K-12 school expenditures, with public schools spending $16,687 per pupil for a total of $28.05 billion annually. Overall, costs exceed available funding by nearly $460 million.