RV increases, other schools decrease in '26 headcount

Of Jackson County’s three school districts, only Royal Valley saw an increase in its student “headcount” from the 2025-26 school year to the current year — and a modest one at that, according to reports on the Sept. 21 headcount date from school districts in the Jackson County area.

Royal Valley USD 337 Superintendent Aaric Davis said his district saw an increase of 10 students, from 828 students last year in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade to this year’s 838-student count on Sept. 21, this year’s official headcount date owing to the Kansas State Department of Education’s regular headcount date of Sept. 20 falling on a Sunday this year.

But elsewhere in the area, Holton USD 336 saw its pre-K-through-12th-grade headcount fall by 91, Jackson Heights USD 335 saw 32 fewer students in this year’s count and Atchison County USD 377 saw its 2026-27 count drop by 20 from last year, according to the headcounts provided by each district.

The annual headcount from each school district in Kansas is used by KSDE to determine how much state aid each school district will receive. Those numbers undergo an extensive auditing phase, and state aid is formally finalized during the following spring, KSDE officials noted.

Enrollment numbers on Sept. 21 are used to determine full-time equivalency, or FTE, one of the main factors used by the Kansas State Department of Education in determining the amount of financial aid available to each school. Each district’s budget authority involves taking the final headcount and “weighting” it according to various factors, such as the number of students qualifying for free lunches, which might increase the weighted number, it was reported.

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