School corporations are reporting their student counts to state officials this time of year.  The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) schools say the current student count is 21,405, including grades kindergarten through 12th.  That number is down by 403 from last September.  School officials say the official count will not be available for a couple weeks until finalized by the state.

The grade impacted the most in the downward count is kindergarten.

The education nonprofit news operation, Chalkbeat, published a story about a national trend this year in fewer kindergarten students.  You can read that piece at this link.