Matt Coats, Chief Evangelist at SchoolMint, has spent years working with K-12 school systems as they navigate enrollment growth, family engagement, and student recruitment. In his role, Matt helps school and district leaders understand how communications, marketing, and enrollment strategy can work together to help more families find and choose the right schools.
District communications teams have always played a critical role in shaping how families understand and experience their schools.
They manage public relations, crisis communications, community engagement, newsletters, media requests, social media, websites, storytelling, and the steady work of building trust with families and staff. But in many districts in the last year alone, that role has started to change.
As enrollment pressure grows, communications leaders are increasingly being asked to support a responsibility many teams were not originally built for: student recruitment. That means the questions landing in the communications team’s inboxes are changing, too:
- How can we increase enrollment in our school district?
- How do we get more families interested in specific schools or programs?
- How do we market our schools when families have more choices than ever?
- How do we show leadership and the school board that our outreach is contributing to enrollment growth?
These questions are bigger than a single campaign, newsletter, or social post. They point to a larger shift in how districts think about communications, marketing, and enrollment strategy.
That shift is why I wrote Student Recruitment in Your District: A Communication Leader’s Guide to Getting Started. For communications leaders who are being asked to support enrollment growth, often for the first time, the guide offers a practical starting point for understanding what student recruitment requires and where district teams can focus first.
The Role of District Communications is Expanding
Across the country, school districts are navigating a more competitive enrollment landscape.
Public school enrollment declined sharply during the pandemic and has not fully rebounded. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school enrollment fell from 50.8 million students in fall 2019 to 49.4 million in fall 2020 and 2021, before rising slightly to 49.6 million in fall 2022.
At the local level, those trends show up in different ways. Some districts are facing declining birth rates. Others are seeing families move, choose other school options, or become harder to reach through traditional communication channels.
Whatever the cause, the result is clear: enrollment is no longer only an operations issue; it’s also a communications issue.
Now, that doesn’t mean communications teams should be expected to solve enrollment challenges alone. They should not. However, communications leaders are often uniquely positioned to help districts answer important questions:
- What do families know about our schools?
- What programs, people, and experiences make our schools worth choosing?
- Are we making it easy for interested families to take the next step?
- Are we communicating in ways that move families from awareness to action?
Those questions sit squarely in the communications wheelhouse. The challenge, however, is that student recruitment requires a more focused approach than general district awareness.
Ready to get started?
If your communications team is being asked to support enrollment growth, you don’t have to build a full student recruitment strategy from scratch.
My free guide, Student Recruitment in Your District: A Communication Leader’s Guide to Getting Started, will help you understand where to focus first, what to measure, and how to build a more manageable plan.
Student Recruitment Requires More Than Awareness
District communications teams are already skilled at building awareness and telling stories. That work still matters. But student recruitment asks a different question: what happens after a family becomes aware?
A family may see a social post, visit a school webpage, click an ad, attend an event, or hear about a program from a neighbor. But awareness alone does not guarantee that family will inquire, tour, apply, register, or enroll.
That is where recruitment differs from traditional communications. It is not just about reaching families, writing press releases, or improving public perception. It is also about helping families move from interest to action.
In that sense, student recruitment is more akin to sales than public relations. Communications still plays a critical role, but the goal becomes more specific: give families a clear reason to consider a school, a clear next step to take, and a measurable path from initial interest to enrollment.
The chart below breaks down the difference.
Families Choose Schools, Not Just Districts
Another shift districts must account for is how families make decisions.
District reputation matters, but when families are deciding where to send their child, they often want to understand the specific school experience and not just hear about academics. They also want to know about:
- Programs, student supports, and extracurriculars
- Principals and teachers
- Transportation options
- Safety and school culture
- Whether a particular campus feels like the right fit for their child
That means districts cannot rely only on broad district-level messaging.
To support student recruitment, communications teams often need to help families see the value of specific schools and programs. The story has to become more concrete, more personal, and more connected to the decision families are actually making.
Communications Teams Need Better Visibility Into What Works
As communications teams become more involved in enrollment growth, the way success is measured also starts to change.
Impressions, clicks, opens, and engagement still have value, but they don’t tell the whole story.
If a district is trying to increase enrollment, leaders need to understand whether communication efforts are helping families take the next step.
That creates a new challenge for communications teams. Many are being asked to prove impact without having a clear view into the full family journey, from first point of interest to completed enrollment.
This is why student recruitment cannot depend on messaging alone. Districts also need a better way to connect outreach, family interest, and enrollment outcomes.
New to Student Recruitment? Start Here
For many communications teams, student recruitment is a new responsibility without a clear playbook. The answer isn’t to do everything at once. It’s not to launch more campaigns just for the sake of being louder. And it’s not to put the full weight of enrollment growth on one person or an already-stretched communications department.
The first step is understanding how recruitment differs from general awareness, where communications can have the greatest impact, and what district teams should focus on first.
If your communications team is being asked to support enrollment growth, this guide can help you understand where to focus first, what to measure, and how to build a more manageable student recruitment plan.
Free Guide
Student Recruitment in Your District
Learn where to focus first, what to measure, and how to build a manageable plan for supporting enrollment growth.
Download the Free GuideFAQ: Student Recruitment for Communications Teams in School Districts
How can district communications teams support student recruitment?
District communications teams can support student recruitment by creating clear, family-friendly messaging, promoting specific schools and programs, building awareness of enrollment timelines, and making it easy for families to take action. Communications teams can also help connect outreach efforts to measurable outcomes, such as inquiries, tours, applications, registrations, and completed enrollments.
What is the difference between district marketing and student recruitment?
District marketing focuses on building awareness, trust, and reputation for the district as a whole. Student recruitment is more focused on moving families from interest to action. That may mean encouraging a family to request more information, schedule a tour, attend an open house, apply to a program, complete registration, or choose a specific school.
How can school districts market to prospective families?
School districts can market to prospective families by clearly showing what makes their schools worth choosing. This includes highlighting academic programs, student support, transportation options, extracurriculars, school culture, principals, teachers, and enrollment deadlines. The most effective district marketing makes the next step easy, whether that is booking a tour, starting an application, attending an event, or contacting the enrollment team.
What should districts track to measure success in student recruitment campaigns?
Districts should track more than impressions, clicks, and social media engagement. Student recruitment campaigns should also measure family actions, including inquiries, tour sign-ups, event registrations, applications started, applications submitted, registrations completed, and students enrolled. These metrics help districts understand whether their outreach is leading to enrollment activity.
How can communications leaders help increase district enrollment?
Communications leaders can help increase district enrollment by making sure families understand their school options, know why specific schools or programs may be a good fit, and have a clear path to take the next step. They can also help identify priority schools, strengthen recruitment messaging, promote enrollment events, and track which outreach efforts are generating meaningful family interest.
Where should a district start with student recruitment?
A district should start by identifying where enrollment support is most needed, such as schools with open seats, programs that need more visibility, or campuses facing increased competition. From there, communications and enrollment teams can work together to clarify the message, define the next step for families, and decide which outcomes they will track.
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