Beginning in the 2013-2014 school year, the District's benchmark enrollment reporting date was moved from the twentieth day of school to the Monday following the Labor Day holiday. This new benchmark day replaces the tenth and twentieth day enrollment counts reported in previous years. The enrollment reported on the Monday following Labor Day is statistically comparable to the annual enrollment reported on the twentieth day of school and allows for school planning processes to begin sooner than in previous years.

The Benchmark Day Enrollment Report is important to the District because it is utilized in Board Policies and it establishes a statistical benchmark on a year-to-year basis.

All Prekindergarten through twelfth grade students are entered into the District’s TERMS student database by school staff and reported by the Demographics & Enrollment Planning Department as the official benchmark day enrollment count.

The Demographics & Enrollment Planning Department enrollment projection should not be confused with the school budget forecast. The projected enrollment provided in the benchmark day enrollment report reflects the official Demographics & Enrollment Planning Department enrollment projection forecasted immediately following the previous year’s benchmark day of enrollment.  This enrollment projection is provided in the benchmark day report to compare if enrollment came in higher or lower than anticipated. 

Following the benchmark day of school, new five year enrollment projections are reported by the Demographics & Enrollment Planning Department to the Budget Department where Budget staff then applies a formula to the enrollment projection for each school to forecast the school’s annual budget based on student program participation at each school.

A charter school “capacity” is a student station number that is included in the School Board approved charter contract with each individual charter school. A charter contract with student stations included is required by state statute 1002.33. State statute also requires that this capacity number be transmitted to the state on an annual basis as the capacity of the  charter school.

Charter schools are not currently required to update their capacity number unless their charter contract is up for renewal. Charter school contracts renewals occur every five years unless a different contract is developed due to special circumstances as approved by the School Board.