Minot Public Schools have an increase of more than 100 students in kindergarten to Grade 12 starting school this fall.

Students are still enrolling but as of Thursday, 7,582 students were enrolled. At the end of last year, the school system had 7,443 students in K-12.

An increase in the number of students in Minot Public Schools corresponds with the statewide estimates showing higher numbers of students in public schools this year.

The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction estimates 108,604 students will attend public school in grades K-12 during the 2017-18 school year.

“That is an increase of 1,741, or 1.6 percent, from the previous year’s public K-12 total of 106,863,” said Dale Wetzel, NDDPI public information specialist in Bismarck. He said those numbers do not include nonpublic or home-schooled students. The department does not estimate future nonpublic/homeschool enrollment.

Minot Public Schools Head Start, a comprehensive child development program, is mandated for the number of children it can serve. On Sept. 5, 234 preschoolers will begin Head Start – the same number as last year.

Early Head Start, for birth to age 3, is a year-round program mandated for 77 children.

Minot Head Start has three locations: the main center at Burdick Expressway East, Jefferson Early Childhood Center in southeast Minot and two Head Start facilities at Minot Air Force Base.

According to the Minot State University Communications office, the MSU fall semester eight-week classes begin Aug. 21. Sixteen-week classes will begin after 4 p.m. Aug. 21. The first full day of 16-week classes will be Aug. 22.

The fall enrollment headcount for 2017 will not be available until the first full day of classes, Aug. 22.

The fall enrollment for 2016 was 3,412.