Broward schools recruit Miami-Dade students as enrollment declines

Broward County Public Schools mailed 24,000 postcards to families in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach as districts compete for students amid declining enrollment.

NBC 6 South Florida  By: Ari Odzer | July 14, 2026

It’s a sign of the falling enrollment times: direct competition between school districts for students.

Broward County Public Schools is actively recruiting kids who live in Miami-Dade County.

“Right now we’re not at capacity as a school district, and we need to do our due diligence and compete and market ourselves,” said Broward’s superintendent, Dr. Howard Hepburn.

His district is marketing on social media and recruiting with postcards targeted at families in northern Miami-Dade County and southern Palm Beach County. The flyers advertise open seats available at 24 schools in the southern end of the county, a short drive from Miami-Dade.

“This is not about poaching, we already have kids who cross our borders to come to our schools and vice versa, this is bigger than just the school district itself, we’re talking about charter school parents, home school parents, parents who are new to public education, just letting them know what kind of opportunities we offer, we are a tri-county area and parents and families traverse across all three counties,” Hepburn said.

I asked Miami-Dade’s superintendent, Dr. Jose Dotres, if he felt Broward was trying to poach his students.

“Well, I see it as an approach of bringing, or recruiting, public school students into a public school district, and the effort should be about us gaining the students that we’ve lost to competitive markets,” Dotres said, referring to charter schools, private schools, and home-schooled kids.

So what does Dotres think Broward’s effort says about the low enrollment issue?

“What it says is we have to be really competitive and recruit,” Dotres replied.

Palm Beach County Public Schools fired the first salvo, sending similar postcards to northern Broward residents a few weeks ago.

“I love competition, I welcome it, I thrive in a competitive environment, and that’s what we’re doing right now,” Hepburn said.

Broward sent the postcards to 24,000 households, spending about a dollar per postcard in the process.

Dotres says his district is using social media to recruit, saying mailbox flyers don’t really work. He also said Miami-Dade Schools offers so many choice options, there’s no reason for students to go elsewhere.

Let the recruiting wars begin.