Catholic schools forming children 'who love Jesus Christ'

BACK TO SCHOOL: Diocese of Albany sees 10.3 percent jump in elementary school enrollment since 2020-21.

Grace colors with her kindergarten classmates during art class on Sept. 12 at St. Clement's School in Saratoga Springs. Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist (Courtesy photo of CINDY SCHULTZ)

OSV NEWS - As they open their doors for a new academic year, the nation's Catholic schools are enjoying overall strong growth, along with a firm commitment to mission, experts told OSV News.

"Our school system has grown two years in a row," said Lincoln Snyder, president and CEO of the National Catholic Educational Association.

Based in Leesburg, Va., the NCEA, an organization which traces its origins to a 1904 conference held in St. Louis, represents close to 140,000 Catholic educators serving 1.6 million students.

Snyder told OSV News that Catholic schools in the U.S. on balance experienced a bump in enrollment amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 3.8 percent growth from 2021-22 and 0.3 percent growth during the 2022-23 year.

In addition, "most retention rates are pretty high," said Snyder. "Dioceses last year retained 93 percent to 98 percent of students who came (during) COVID."

The Diocese of Albany has seen its elementary school enrollment increase 10.3 percent over the three-year period starting 2020-21, said Dr. Giovanni Virgiglio, Superintendent of Schools.

“While K-12 enrollment in the Diocese of Albany has remained flat for several years, a number of schools have maintained increases resulting from in-person learning options made available following the pandemic shutdown. Between 2020-21 and 2022-23, All Saints Catholic Academy (Albany), St. Mary's (Waterford), St. Mary’s School (Ballston Spa) and St. Pius X (Loudonville) all saw double-digit percentage growth in student enrollment. Catholic Central also experienced a similar increase as a result of coming together with St. Ambrose School at the Latham campus,” Virgiglio said.

“When factoring in the expansion of pre-kindergarten offerings such as universal pre-K, elementary school enrollment across the Diocese has increased 10.3 percent over the three-year period. Twelve of the 17 elementary schools saw a jump in enrollment, with nine experiencing a double-digit percentage increase from 2020-21 to 2022-23.”

In the 2020-21 school year, the Diocese had a total of 859 pre-K students, that number jumped to 1,127 students in 2021-22 and 1,241 for the 2022-23 school year. That is an increase of 382 students or 44.5 percent over the three-year period.

Snyder attributed such sustained growth in Catholic schools nationally to factors that transcended the pandemic.

"By all indications, families who came to Catholic schools were very happy with the community and they established relationships" with the schools, he said. "Once people have children in a positive environment, they tend not to change it."

Making Catholic education accessible to students with disabilities also is key, said Andrew McLaughlin, secretary for elementary education at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

"We are really pushing for full inclusion for children with disabilities, rather than have separate schools for them," said McLaughlin, whose schools have seen strong growth and -- in contrast to national trends -- little learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced by standardized testing.

Virgiglio agreed, adding that advocacy at the state and local levels is “critical.”

“We continue to expand access and services to all students, regardless of background or needs, and encourage one-on-one meetings with individual families to ensure that our schools are able to provide related services and suitable accommodations for a student with special needs,” Virgiglio said. “A critical piece in this continues to be advocacy, which we are pursuing on both state and local levels, more specifically for an increase in funding and equitable services that would allow us to further expand accessibility across the board.”

Along with expanding access, school administrators across the nation are focused on addressing both mental health and school security concerns.

While their students are not immune from national increases in mental health challenges -- a trend highlighted by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in a 2021 advisory -- Catholic schools, equipped with psychological and spiritual resources, can provide a strongly supportive environment for students and families navigating such issues.

“Our Catholic schools are proud to have expanded our mental health offerings significantly in recent years and are working diligently to maintain those offerings despite a dramatically increased need post-pandemic,” Virgiglio said. “Still, we recognize the critical need for a range of counseling services and are always seeking ways to identify additional funding so we can continue to offer mental health services to students and their families who desire them and have come to depend on them to be successful in the classroom.

“As with accessibility, both mental health and school security matters circle back to advocacy, something we continually advance not only with the New York State Legislature but with the New York State Education Department. As a result, we have seen an increase in funding and greater flexibility in spending for security measures. Most recently, some schools have increased security personnel and tackled capital improvements as a result of our persistence. It is a reminder that every voice matters, and when we band together to let our elected officials know what our schools need and deserve, as we see progress.”

But the biggest draw at many schools is the fundamental nature of Catholic education itself, said experts.
"We've got a very clear mission, and we serve Catholic families that are really serious about engaging their kids in education, and making sure their kids get a chance to learn what we as Catholics really believe," said Kevin Ferdinandt, headmaster of St. Agnes School in St. Paul, Minn. "If we're going to call ourselves a Catholic school and not be serious about teaching the faith ... then we're just private schools with a religion department. We worked hard for a lot of years to establish an extraordinary student and faculty culture (of Catholic education), and with that came the success of our school."

"Our first role as Catholic schools is forming disciples," Snyder added. "We are a ministry of the church, and we want to form children who love Jesus Christ."

Evangelist staff writer Mike Matvey contributed to this report.