{"id":16362,"date":"2026-01-13T22:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=16362"},"modified":"2026-01-13T22:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:35:15","slug":"2025-26-school-statistics-offer-opportunity-to-reflect-wels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=16362","title":{"rendered":"2025\u201326 school statistics offer opportunity to reflect \u2013 WELS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>Enrollment in WELS schools this school year has decreased slightly from the 2024\u201325 school year, according to the recently released 2025\u201326 school statistics. Lutheran high school enrollment continued to climb, up 2.6 percent (from 7,484 students to 7,680 students), while Lutheran elementary school enrollment remained flat. Enrollment at WELS early childhood ministries declined slightly, down 4.9 percent (from 11,338 students to 10,784 students). These statistics match a nationwide decline in school enrollment due to falling birth rates in the US.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we take a look at the overall enrollment picture [in WELS],\u201d says James Rademan, director of WELS Lutheran Schools, \u201cabout a third of our schools are growing, about a third of them are staying the same, and about a third are actually reducing in enrollment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A shortage of called teachers has affected some schools. Rademan says that several early childhood centers have paused their work because they couldn\u2019t get enough workers to staff the centers, and some smaller schools are struggling to get teachers for their classrooms. \u201cThe opportunities continue to far outweigh the manpower that we have,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>To combat this situation, WELS Lutheran Schools is encouraging congregations and schools across the districts to recruit, retain, and renew.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recruit individuals who could serve well in gospel ministry, be it pastors or teachers. \u201cOur encouragement and how we recruit can go a long way on what kind of reach we can make through our schools,\u201d says Rademan.<\/li>\n<li>Retain current called workers. \u201cAre we valuing the workers that we have as much as we could?\u201d says Rademan. \u201cLet\u2019s not just say we need more workers, but let\u2019s review how we are supporting the current workers we have.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Renew or review the mission of the children\u2019s ministry. \u201cWe want everyone to go through this process to make sure they keep examining their ministry needs and goals,\u201d says Rademan. \u201cWhat are the blessings, the challenges, the opportunities the Lord has provided us with?\u201d This review can help local congregations and schools adapt to changing conditions and make informed long-range ministry decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WELS Congregational Services offers consulting support for congregations that want help with this process. Learn more about congregational consulting opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>                    <span id=\"printfriendly-text2\" class=\"pf-button-text\"> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enrollment in WELS schools this school year has decreased slightly from the 2024\u201325 school year, according to the recently released 2025\u201326 school statistics. Lutheran high school enrollment continued to climb, up 2.6 percent (from 7,484 students to 7,680 students), while Lutheran elementary school enrollment remained flat. Enrollment at WELS early childhood ministries declined slightly, down<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[265,5088,1204,202,5087,290],"class_list":["post-16362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-offer","tag-opportunity","tag-reflect","tag-school","tag-statistics","tag-wels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}