COVID exodus: Where did 1 million public school students go? New data sheds some light.

Until now, it was one of the pandemic’s great mysteries: Where did the missing students go?

When classes resumed in fall 2020, several months after COVID struck, enrollment in the nation’s public schools had plummeted by more than a million students. It was the largest single-year decline since World War II. And defying hopes of a rapid rebound, enrollment barely budged the following year.

There have been clues about where students went, such as the steep rise in homeschooling, but a full explanation of the public school exodus has been elusive. Now,...