Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Mount Rushmore State
Oglala Lakota County School District grew 49.4% since 2007, the 10th-fastest rate in South Dakota. Most of that growth came from opening Lakota Tech, the first CTE high school on any reservation.
The ratio of kindergartners to 12th graders has collapsed from 1.41 to 1.10 in a decade, signaling years of accelerating enrollment decline ahead.
South Dakota's 147 school districts range from 20 to 24,841 students. The bottom half hold just 12% of the state's enrollment.
White enrollment fell from 82% to 69% as Hispanic students nearly quadrupled and multiracial identification surged across the state.
Pre-K enrollment tripled from 1,280 to 3,284 over two decades, but most of the growth traces to a 2010 reporting rule change, not new classrooms.
South Dakota's third-largest district added 4,682 students since 2007 without a single down year, but the growth rate is falling fast.
Karen refugees and Hispanic workers made Huron South Dakota's most diverse district. Enrollment up 41.6% as white share fell from 80% to 38%.
Nearly one in six South Dakota school districts is at its lowest enrollment ever recorded, including the state's second-largest district, Rapid City.
Most states lost students during COVID. South Dakota added 2,275. Three years later, the growth era is over and decline is accelerating.
South Dakota's kindergarten enrollment has fallen from 12,082 to 10,954 since 2022, the sharpest sustained decline on record. The shrinking pipeline foreshadows years of total enrollment loss.
South Dakota's second-largest district has lost nearly 2,000 students since 2012 while the state grew. The kindergarten pipeline is collapsing.
Hispanic enrollment nearly quadrupled in 17 years, reshaping schools from Huron to Sioux Falls and closing in on Native American enrollment statewide.
After adding 18,000 students from 2007 to 2019, South Dakota public schools have lost 2,568 from their 2022 peak. The decline quadrupled in 2025.
SD DOE releases 2024-25 enrollment data showing 138,861 students statewide — down 1,726, the largest single-year loss since the state started growing in 2007.