Increasing costs of summer courses and more online options have contributed to the shrinking number of students enrolling in traditional summer school programs according to local school officials.

Hamilton City Schools has seen its summer school enrollment plummet from 668 high school students in 2008 to 376 in 2011 according to a Hamilton JournalNews analysis.

Keith Millard, director of secondary programs at Hamilton City Schools, said there are several contributing factors for the drop off.

“In the past, there was a total fee waiver for free and reduced lunch (students). Then we started charging at a reduced rate, but we started charging, nonetheless, for all students,” he said.

“I also think that we continue to work on intervention remediation strategies during the year to reduce the number of students that are in need of credit recovery during summer school.

“It is a combination of costs as well as increased work during the school year to keep the students out of needing to attend.”

Millard said the district summer school prices have also increased.

For residents of the district, credit recovery classes costs $150 per term and for free and reduced lunch residents $75 per term, he said.

For non-residents of the district, credit recovery classes costs $250 per term.

The price of taking advanced credit classes — government, physical education, health and English — is $200 for residents and $300 for non-residents .

Fairfield City Schools has already had to make some adjustments due to its declining enrollment, said Bill Miller, secondary curriculum coordinator for the district.

Miller said enrollment has been impacted by a new policy — driven by the state — that allows students to receive physical education credit by participating in a sport or marching band for two years. Those students used to take summer physical education classes so they could take extra music or other classes during the normal school year.

Fairfield summer school cost $275 per class for residents and $350 per class for non-residents. Both costs are the same for online courses, Miller said.

Lakota Local School District has also seen a drop in enrollment, despite the costs remaining at 199.95 since 2008. Lakota had 820 students enrolled in summer school in 2008 and expects to have about 400 this year.

Kim McGowan, Lakota’s enrollment coordinator said there are several reasons for the downward trend.

“When we saw issues with the economy, we saw a decrease in students who were willing to pay for summer school. Now we’re seeing a decrease, I think, because there are so many more options out there for students. Whether that’s through Lakota or outside providers — especially with online programs — those are booming right now,” she said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.