South Florida Catholic schools see double-digit enrollment growth in past 5 years

Education admin July 25, 2026 0 Comments

South Florida Catholic schools see double-digit enrollment growth in past 5 years

Assisted by an influx of Catholic families and the state’s universal voucher system, Catholic schools in South Florida are seeing the highest student enrollment in a decade, according to data from the Archdiocese of Miami. The growth comes at a time when public school enrollment in South Florida has seen a sharp decline.

Enrollment in Catholic schools has gone from 28,760 students in 2015-16 to 31,142 in the 2025-26 school year, an 8.2% increase in schools owned and operated by the Archdiocese of Miami. The growth happened in spite of a steep decline during the pandemic: In the 2020-21 school year, enrollment in Catholic schools had dipped to the lowest in 10 years at 26,677. But in the last five years, enrollment bounced back, increasing by 16.7%.

“We have definitely been in growth mode for the last few years, and at this point, over half of our Catholic schools in South Florida are full with waiting lists, and the remainder, nearly all of them, are growing,” said Jim Rigg, superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Miami.

Rigg, who has been in his role since 2021, has linked the enrollment growth to a number of factors including demographic shifts in Miami, a strong academic reputation and — perhaps most profoundly — an increase in the number of students who are on state-funded vouchers.

Last year there were 31,142 total students enrolled in the 59 schools operated by the Archdiocese of Miami, which includes Miami-Dade, Monroe and Broward counties. That number increases to about 37,000 when six other independent private Catholic schools — like Cristo Rey Miami High School in North Miami and Belen Jesuit Preparatory School — are included.

Enrollment is expected to continue growing this upcoming school year, said Rigg, though the archdiocese won’t know an exact number until early October.

“We’re truly blessed that our schools perform well and seem to have strong reputations that represent a draw for families,” Rigg told the Miami Herald.

The voucher effect

The state’s voucher expansion has had a profound impact on the growth of Catholic schools. Over 95% of students enrolled in Catholic schools are on some kind of state scholarship, with most receiving around $6,500 in vouchers to put forth toward tuition, according to Rigg.

Florida expanded its state-funded voucher program in 2022–23, allowing any Florida family, regardless of income, to receive up to $8,000 to help fund a child’s private school tuition.

In the first year the voucher program was expanded, Catholic student enrollment rose 4.1%.

Rigg said Catholic school officials can’t tell exactly how much of the growth the vouchers are responsible for. That’s because when the vouchers went universal, many families currently enrolled in Catholic schools started receiving them in addition to new students. However, he said the archdiocese has seen steady consistent growth in populations across income, ethnicity and geography.

Enrollment in private schools in Miami-Dade County — religious and non-religious — has increased from about 70,000 to 92,000 the past two decades, according to reporting by the Miami Herald. About 60,850 private school students in Miami-Dade County use vouchers.

Critics have argued that vouchers — which the state spent $4.3 billion on last year—are siphoning taxpayer dollars away from public education to private schools, which are not regulated in the same ways public schools are. A 2025 state audit also revealed general failures in the voucher system, citing millions of dollars in overspending and a lack of oversight in scholarship payments. Supporters argue that vouchers allow parents more freedom to find the best schools available for their children.

Public school enrollment declines

The Catholic school growth comes at a time when enrollment in traditional public schools in Miami-Dade County has been in steady decline over the past two decades. Last school year the district experienced an enrollment drop of about 13,000 students, the Miami Herald reported and is projected to lose another 8,000 in the upcoming school year.

Public school officials have said the decline is linked to fewer newly arriving immigrants from other countries, declining birth rates, and families leaving for more affordable places.

But, Catholic school officials are claiming that part of the reason for their steady growth is the influx of school-age Catholics coming from Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Not only are they coming from countries that are predominantly Catholic, but the church is seen as a strong force of good in those countries,” Rigg said. “They’re often places where there’s a lot of political and social turmoil, and the church is seen as a source of support for those families.”

One result of the growth: Catholic schools have become increasingly competitive, leading to at-capacity schools and waitlists.

“We have entire regions in South Florida where there’s just no available seat in a Catholic school,” Rigg said.

The archdiocese has opened four new schools in the last four years — and officials are considering opening more. At least one more new school will open in the fall of 2027.

“Last year, we had a school in Cutler Bay that opened up a second campus to try to meet the really strong demand that seems to exist for Catholic education in South Florida,” Rigg said.

This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida’s Jewish and Muslim communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.