Burbio School Tracker 2/10: Slowdown Indicators

1. Burbio maintains a checkbook register database covering districts with over 20 million students. Below we revisit an analysis we started last Fall, by profiling select suppliers in the instructional materials category. The chart below shows the percentage of districts in our coverage area making at least one payment during the quarter to selected vendors. The same districts are represented for each period to ensure an apples-to-apples comparison.

Given the seasonality in spending, the most appropriate comparison is year over year, not quarter by quarter. Note that for the quarter ending 9/30/25, all the suppliers showed a drop versus the quarter ending 9/30/24:

It is worth noting that it was in early Q3 2025 that the Federal government withheld a material portion of Title funding for the 2025-26 academic year. While funding was ultimately released, it created widespread spending uncertainty across K-12.

2. Later in February, Burbio is adding district level contact data (name, title, email address, phone, etc.) to our Intel Hub for decision makers across K-12. Clients will access the data for use in email campaigns and district outreach. This week we profile the variety of ways districts designate their technology leadership. Below is the percentage of districts that have individuals with the indicated title:

There are dozens of additional variations that make up the long tail of technology titles and roles, from Director of Instructional Technology to Director of IT Services to Assistant Superintendent of Information Technology.

3. Burbio’s Signals Tracker reads and summarizes millions of pages of district discussions, helping clients identify near-term selling opportunities. We recently reviewed hundreds of district discussions focused on tutoring. While tutoring spans a wide range of use cases, we begin by examining the primary reasons districts turn to tutoring.

• Addressing Academic Gaps and Proficiency in Core Subjects, particularly in foundational literacy and mathematics.
• Supporting Vulnerable and Underserved Populations such as specialized academic assistance to English Language Learners (ELL), students experiencing homelessness (McKinney-Vento) or those within the juvenile justice system.
• Fulfilling the requirements of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities, in addition for students who have missed instructional time or require specialized one-on-one interventions.
• Continued focus on Pandemic-Related Learning Loss for students who experienced a documented loss of educational services during the pandemic due to school closures and remote learning disruptions.
• Ensuring Educational Continuity and Progress to Graduation: Circumstances include students who have been suspended, those who have missed school due to hospitalization or medical conditions, general credit recovery and also coaching for those enrolled in AP classes.

4. In our continuing look at recently announced Federal data, we examine grade-level enrollment changes between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. First a look at the national numbers by grade:

Below, we group the grade-level figures by common schooling levels (elementary, middle, and high school). Elementary and middle school enrollment is basically flat while high school enrollment declined: