PHOENIX — Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast.
Arizona's public schools have gained 20,300 students over the last year after the state experienced a mass exodus of students from its classrooms early on during the pandemic.
According to the Arizona Department of Education, the state's overall enrollment numbers grew by 1.8% during the 2021-2022 school year compared to the previous year.
Charter school enrollment dipped by 0.62% and district enrollment grew by 2.5%, ADE said. Enrollment among English-language learners has grown by 11%.
The numbers are an improvement from the disastrous figures seen at the start of the pandemic two years ago.
Nearly 38,500 students fled the state's public schools during the 2020-2021 school year after many families became dissatisfied with how their child's district was adapting to the pandemic's limitations.
State Superintendent Kathy Hoffman said the latest enrollment figures demonstrate how her office's outreach efforts to reengage families were successful at getting students to return to school.
"While we have more work to do to fully return our student counts to pre-pandemic levels, the trend is now moving in the right direction," Hoffman said in a statement.
RELATED: 'It’s a tough place to be': Arizona school superintendents face ‘volatile, polarized environment’
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