Hawai'i's public school enrollment dropped less than 1 percent this school year, the Department of Education said yesterday.

The 2007-08 school year saw 172,364 students enrolled at 258 schools, a decrease of 1,192, or 0.7 percent from the year before, the department said.

The enrollment figure doesn't include the state's 27 public charter schools. Their classes opened later, and they haven't completed their counts.

Last year, Island charter schools had 5,678 students, and the figure is projected to climb to 6,021 this year, educators said.

The largest public school in Hawai'i is Waipahu High, with 2,564 students. The smallest is Ni'ihau. It has 23 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.

After Waipahu, the largest public high schools are Farrington (2,530), Campbell (2,491), Mililani (2,472) and Kapolei (2,285).

The largest intermediate/ middle schools are Mililani (1,814, grades 6-8), Kapolei (1,616, 6-8), Waipahu (1,267, 7-8), 'Ilima (1,212, 7-8) and Wai'anae (1,056, 7-8).

Holomua is the largest elementary school, with 1,444, students in grades K-6, followed by August Ahrens (1,277, K-6), Kapolei (1,065, K-5), Mililani Ike (1,059, K-5) and Lihikai (1,006, K-5).

There are 118,524 public school students on O'ahu, 24,094 on the Big Island, 20,267 on Maui and 9,392 on Kaua'i.

Enrollment has declined annually since reaching a peak of 189,174 in 1997-98.