Alabama now has more grownups working in schools, and fewer students in schools, than 10 years ago, according to documents from the Alabama Department of Education.

Statewide, enrollment has rebounded from declines during the pandemic, but there are 9,100 fewer students compared to 10 years ago. National figures show birth rates have been declining, so the drop isn’t entirely unexpected.

During the same time period, school districts added 6,900 more adults to their payrolls.

More adults and fewer students in schools is the case in many states according to national reports, and experts suggest it is partly because of the windfall of federal COVID relief money. A look at Alabama’s school districts shows that’s happened here, too, to some degree.

But the full picture is a lot more complicated, with some districts hiring more certified teachers and support staff with federal money and others are employing more people using local tax money.

Statewide, 3,600 more certified personnel – teachers, principals, counselors and librarians, for example – are working in schools than 10 years earlier. The majority of those new workers are teachers, but the number of professionals working with students with disabilities has also increased. Ten years ago, schools employed 55,554 certified workers. This year, that number is 59,183.

There are more people working in administrative, central-office type roles and more reading and math coaches as schools focus on early math and reading literacy.

There are more roles for support staff, too. Schools employ 3,300 more support staff such as lunchroom workers, custodians, social workers and front office workers than they did 10 years earlier. The number of school nurses and social workers has increased as have the number of people working as various types of aides.

Ten years ago, schools employed 35,619 support staff and this year, they employ 38,951.

The chart below shows the percentage change statewide, year over year, in student enrollment and the number of certified and support staff working in the schools. Click here if you can’t see the chart.

That inverse relationship – fewer children, more adults – is the case in many of the districts that have seen declining enrollment over the past decade or so.

The chart below shows how many school districts are seeing enrollment go up or down and whether hiring is going up or down as well.

Out of the 77 school districts that enroll fewer students now than they did five years ago, only 16 districts have fewer adults working in the school. And 57 school districts have fewer students but more adults.

Alabama school districts have been able to keep adults working – with many hiring intervention specialists in reading and math to help students learn what they may have missed when schools were closed – thanks to $3 billion in federal pandemic relief funding.

Nationally, experts are calling the end of federal COVID relief funding a “fiscal cliff” because districts that have been flush with cash will find themselves back where they started before the pandemic.

District officials have just under a year left to spend the remainder of that funding, but after Sept. 30, 2024, that money will no longer be available to spend to pay any employees.

Any employees who are being paid solely from those federal pandemic funds will either be let go or districts will have to find a way to cover it themselves.

Schools could receive some relief from state lawmakers, depending on what they decide to do with an estimated $1.6 billion in excess state tax revenues for the tax year that just ended.

Without more funding, those 57 school districts – and maybe more – will have some tough decisions to make.

.The 2023-24 school year enrollment numbers won’t be available until mid-November.