Limited Number of Schools Absorb Latinos

Hispanic children account for nearly two-thirds of the recent growth in school enrollment, but most of that increase has been absorbed by a small proportion of the nation’s schools, says a report released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The pattern is true not only in states that have historically received Latino immigrants, such as New York and Texas, but also in such states as Georgia and North Carolina that are new to taking in large numbers of Hispanic students.

“A small subset of schools experienced a lot of Hispanic enrollment changes,” Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center and the author of the report, said during a telephone press briefing Oct. 5. “The changes in those schools are markedly different than for the rest of the schools...