The numbers are in: Eden Prairie Schools enrollment is booming and has reached its highest total in over a decade.

In EP Schools’ annual enrollment report, presented at the Oct. 27 school board meeting, Andrew Adams, the district’s executive director of business services, and Dirk Tedmon, executive director of marketing and communications, reported enrollment of 9,352 students across the district, including in-person schooling and EP Online.

This total is the highest enrollment EP Schools has had since the 2011-12 school year, according to the report data, which is based on an official child count that took place on Oct. 1. 

Adams said enrollment is up across every grade level for both in-person schooling and EP Online. Brick-and-mortar elementary school enrollment is 204 students above projections, while in-person middle and high school enrollment is up by 193 students. 

EP Online enrollment is above the district’s projected total by 65 students across both elementary and secondary levels.

Another major development for the district is that, for the first time in three years, kindergarten enrollment numbers were above projections, totaling 583 kindergartners this year, Tedmon said.

At the school board’s Sept. 8 workshop meeting, Superintendent Josh Swanson and Tedmon presented an early report on the district’s projected enrollment totals for the year. This year’s projected enrollment was set at 8,890, slightly lower than last year’s final total of 8,923.

Comparing the projected total of 8,890 that was budgeted for this year with the district’s official enrollment count of 9,352 puts the district 462 students above its budgeted projection. This includes being over budget for every grade level, according to the report’s data.

“Being above enrollment projections does have unplanned for but manageable impacts on the system,” Tedmon said in an email statement sent to Eden Prairie Local News last week. “Serving more students means needing more staff to support them and maintain our promises to the community about class size ratios and staffing allocations. So, there is additional, unplanned revenue and some unplanned expense.”

Tedmon added in his statement that the district will be able to share more about these budget projections in January when they present the midyear budget update.

A major reason for the increase in EP Schools enrollment is that the overall net loss — a figure achieved by subtracting the total number of students entering the district from the total number of students leaving the district — has decreased significantly in the past six years. For fiscal year 2025, the school district had a net loss of around 86 students, a sharp reduction compared to an 843-student net loss in 2020, according to the enrollment report.

Trends in open enrollment, which allows families to attend a public school outside their resident district, are another factor contributing to EP Schools’ record student totals. Incoming students who open enrolled in the district — whether in brick-and-mortar schools or EP Online — increased by 86 this year, while the number of Eden Prairie residents enrolling in other school districts decreased by eight.

“We’re really proud to report that for the first time in a number of years, we’re heading in the right direction in both ways,” Tedmon said.

The top five school districts that had residents enroll in EP Schools were Eastern Carver County Schools, Minneapolis Public Schools, Shakopee Public Schools, Hopkins Public Schools and Bloomington Public Schools. These five school districts account for about 55% of all students who open enrolled in EP Schools, according to Tedmon.

On the other side, Minnetonka Public Schools and Eagle Ridge Academy, a charter school in Minnetonka with a specialized focus on a classical liberal arts education, served the most Eden Prairie residents who chose to enroll elsewhere. Edina Public Schools, Hopkins, Bloomington and Eastern Carver rounded out the top five school districts that served the most Eden Prairie residents.

“This is one of the ones that our team in particular, in the marketing side, pays attention to because we want to try and bring back families,” Tedmon said. “Our first goal is retain the families we have, our second goal is bring people back who are residents and then our third goal is increase open enrollment.”

The biggest reasons why students leave EP Schools are that they transferred to another public school district in the state, they moved out of Minnesota, or they transferred to homeschooling or a nonpublic school. Other reasons included a student’s enrollment being canceled (called a “no show”), a student graduating over the summer or dropping out.

“We really try to look at each of these things, see where we can make some inroads and move on to more retention,” Tedmon said.

Adams and Tedmon said next steps for the district will include analyzing data to determine the causes of this year’s enrollment increases, conducting an updated demographic study this spring to help with future enrollment projections and continuing to host kindergarten, Central Middle School and Eden Prairie High School events to market the school district.