PITTSBURGH (TNS) — After facing a steady decline in enrollment for decades, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said initial reports suggest that the trend may be starting to reverse.

Lauren Martin, superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese, said data from some schools has already shown increased enrollment while the numbers continue to come in after the school year kicked off last week.

“One of the regions just reported all their numbers are up in all their schools,” Martin said. “We do seem to trend either stable or up in the vast majority of our schools, both elementary and high school.”

The region that Ms. Martin was referring to — one of the four within the diocese — was the Pittsburgh City Region, which includes St. Benedict the Moor School in the Hill District, Northside Catholic Assumption Academy in Brighton Heights and Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Academy in Wilkinsburg.

Those numbers still need to be finalized as the school season progresses, Martin said.

The update from the diocese came during a news conference detailing its latest schools report.

The report included data from the last school year, which showed enrollment in preschool to eighth grade dropped slightly from 9,400 in 2023 to 8,989 in 2024.

The figures also showed a small decline in high school enrollment — from 3,500 in 2023 to 3,306 in 2024.

The latest data comes after the diocese saw a steep decline in enrollment over decades — from 25,000 elementary students and 5,000 high school students in 2007, when former Bishop David Zubik took over as head of the diocese.

The enrollment decline in diocesan schools mirrored a national trend — which saw total enrollment in Catholic schools nationwide fall from more than 5 million, its peak in the fall of 1960, to just under 1.5 million, according to the National Catholic Education Association.

The dwindling enrollment came amid years of church and school closures within the diocese as it consolidated to better reflect the changes in the Catholic population, societal norms and financial realities.

This effort saw the total numbers of Pittsburgh Diocese schools fall from 110 in 2007 to 45 now.

Martin, however, said that she does not expect any more schools to close or merge in the near future.

“At this time, there is no need to look at the schools any differently than we already do,” she said. “We want to make sure that what we have works exceptionally well, and that hopefully it will grow in the future. But as of right now, we’re pretty stable and happy where we are.”

In its report, the diocese also touted student test figures that indicate those who attend Pittsburgh Catholic Schools are surpassing national benchmarks.

This included results from the Iowa Assessment — nationally standardized tests that measure achievement and growth — that showed diocesan students outperformed target scores by an average of 27.7% in English language arts and by an average of 19% in mathematics.

“Our test scores indicate that our students are learning quite a bit and what we see after high school is that most of them go on to a four-year college or into a profession that will be able to support them and their families going forward,” Bishop Mark Eckman said.

Meanwhile, Martin said one of the larger obstacles families face when deciding whether to send their children to a Catholic school is the cost of tuition.

“What they don’t realize is that the vast majority of our families actually qualify for tuition assistance and all they have to do is fill out a pretty quick application in order to have that available to them,” she said.

Martin also said the diocese is rolling out a new “student support” initiative this year in collaboration with all other Catholic dioceses in the state.

The focus of the program is to combine academic support with social, emotional and behavioral assistance.

It includes screeners who will conduct assessments on all students to determine who may be at risk for learning or behavioral difficulties.

After that, students who are identified as needing additional help will have their progress monitored, allowing the diocese to make data-driven decisions about each student’s needs.

“Our focus is not simply on academics and making sure our students understand different course content, that they do well on exams, but more so that it’s a lifelong investment in faith, intellect, and community,” Martin said. “We are serving the whole child.”