The report showed 44,917 students were enrolled in the ACT's 87 public schools, an increase of 1401, or 3.2 per cent, from August 2015.

The growth in public school enrolments was higher than the recent growth in school-age population of 1.4 per cent a year, according to Minister for Education Shane Rattenbury.

"I am pleased to see the sustained growth in enrolments across our public primary, high and college sectors since 2012," Mr Rattenbury said.

"More and more Canberra parents are choosing to send their children to public school with the confidence they will receive high-quality education from kindergarten through to year 12."

Mr Rattenbury said while the increase in enrolments was encouraging the government must ensure it was planning appropriately to meet the future demand.

"Earlier this year I released school capacity projection data which showed a number of schools were approaching or exceeding capacity," he said.

"At these schools we are implementing specific measures to ensure they have capacity to cater for all in-area students going forward.

"For example, Garran Primary recently received a transportable unit to support the growing student numbers in the short-term by providing greater flexibility in classroom allocation, and from January 2017 the in-area boundary will be reduced in order to limit the number of new enrolments."

In response to increasing enrolments in Gungahlin, the government announced $20 million in funding to expand school facilities in the area and increase student numbers by 680.

The August snapshot showed there had been an increase of 5.2 per cent, or 88 enrolments, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, taking the total to 1777.

From August 2012 to August 2016, enrolments of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students increased by 381 students (27.3 per cent) as compared with the overall increase of enrolments by 4791 students (11.9 per cent) in the same period.

Mr Rattenbury said he was pleased to see a significant increase in the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled in public schools.

"I hope that we can continue to engage all students in their learning, to give them the best head start in their education," he said .

The snapshot showed there were 2255 students accessing special education programs at either mainstream or specialist schools, which represented 5 per cent of the student population.

Secretary of the Australian Education Union, ACT Branch, Glenn Fowler said the figures were a testament to the ongoing work of public school communities in assuring ACT parents that the best place for their children to be was in a public school.

"Through advertisements on buses, in shopping malls and elsewhere, attempts are made to convince people that the best education is one you pay for," Mr Fowler said.

"There is ample evidence now to prove that this is a fallacy. The best investment parents can make is an investment of time in supporting their local public school."

The August snapshot only includes figures for public schools. The full census, which includes non-government schools, is done in February.