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Digest of Education Statistics: 2015
Digest of Education Statistics: 2015

NCES 2016-014
December 2016


Table 206.40. Percentage of students enrolled in grades 1 through 12 whose parents reported having public school choice, considered other schools, reported current school was their first choice, or moved to their current neighborhood for the public school, by school type and selected child and household characteristics: 2012
[Standard errors appear in parentheses]
School type and selected child or
household characteristic
Public choice
available
Considered
other schools
School was
parent's first
choice
Moved to
neighborhood
for public
school1
1 2 3 4 5
Total 37.3   (0.54) 30.5   (0.51) 78.6   (0.43) 18.6   (0.54)
School type2                        
Public, assigned 27.8   (0.58) 24.2   (0.59) 77.5   (0.50) 20.3   (0.64)
Public, chosen3 100.0   (†) 53.1   (1.49) 79.3   (1.05) 9.8   (0.97)
Private, religious 20.7   (1.57) 46.5   (1.92) 87.2   (1.51)   (†)
Private, nonsectarian 21.2   (3.58) 61.5   (3.63) 88.9   (2.37)   (†)
                         
Sex of child                        
Male 36.3   (0.78) 29.9   (0.78) 79.0   (0.56) 17.6   (0.67)
Female 38.5   (0.71) 31.2   (0.81) 78.1   (0.71) 19.7   (0.79)
                         
Race/ethnicity of child                        
White 34.2   (0.64) 26.5   (0.67) 83.4   (0.60) 20.5   (0.60)
Black 43.2   (1.56) 40.1   (1.56) 69.4   (1.69) 15.0   (1.70)
Hispanic 38.9   (1.25) 31.5   (1.20) 74.3   (1.04) 16.5   (1.33)
Asian/Pacific Islander 42.8   (2.51) 33.2   (2.50) 77.2   (2.12) 24.4   (1.75)
Other 40.5   (2.33) 36.4   (2.55) 75.6   (1.99) 14.9   (1.55)
                         
Disability status of child as
   reported by parent
                       
Has a disability 37.8   (1.25) 32.5   (1.32) 75.4   (1.15) 18.3   (1.22)
Does not have a disability 37.2   (0.56) 30.1   (0.55) 79.2   (0.50) 18.7   (0.62)
                         
Grade level                        
Grades 1 through 5 35.0   (0.87) 30.9   (0.94) 78.4   (0.81) 18.7   (0.86)
Grades 6 through 8 39.0   (1.11) 30.3   (0.92) 78.1   (0.83) 19.4   (1.05)
Grades 9 through 12 39.2   (0.86) 30.1   (0.80) 79.1   (0.73) 17.9   (1.06)
                         
Number of parents in the household                        
Two parents 37.2   (0.62) 30.7   (0.61) 81.3   (0.45) 19.2   (0.57)
One parent 37.4   (1.01) 30.4   (0.97) 73.1   (1.04) 18.5   (1.08)
Nonparental guardians 38.5   (2.63) 27.9   (2.67) 75.3   (2.87) 10.6   (1.74)
                         
Highest education level of parents                        
Less than a high school diploma 37.3   (1.71) 25.8   (1.63) 75.7   (1.65) 16.3   (1.89)
High school diploma or GED 34.7   (1.45) 23.9   (1.46) 77.9   (1.10) 13.5   (1.03)
Vocational/technical or some college 37.5   (0.90) 28.5   (0.74) 75.3   (0.87) 17.0   (0.85)
Bachelor's degree/some graduate school 38.4   (1.17) 35.1   (1.22) 81.9   (0.85) 21.6   (0.97)
Graduate/professional degree 39.0   (0.93) 40.2   (0.99) 83.3   (0.67) 27.8   (0.84)
                         
Poverty status of household4                        
Poor 37.7   (1.35) 26.8   (1.32) 72.5   (1.18) 14.8   (1.06)
Near-poor 39.2   (1.14) 28.4   (1.13) 76.6   (1.01) 14.6   (0.92)
Nonpoor 36.5   (0.67) 32.4   (0.75) 81.2   (0.56) 21.5   (0.69)
                         
Locale                        
City 48.8   (1.07) 39.7   (1.05) 73.6   (0.77) 17.0   (0.80)
Suburban 32.0   (0.88) 30.0   (0.72) 78.1   (0.80) 22.5   (0.90)
Town 33.1   (1.91) 19.6   (1.46) 82.2   (1.33) 14.0   (1.77)
Rural 33.6   (1.15) 24.3   (1.02) 84.0   (0.88) 16.4   (0.96)
                         
Region                        
Northeast 22.4   (1.01) 29.5   (1.08) 76.5   (1.13) 18.4   (1.10)
South 34.2   (0.93) 28.9   (0.90) 78.3   (0.79) 18.3   (0.96)
Midwest 41.8   (1.01) 28.5   (1.24) 80.1   (1.08) 21.1   (1.13)
West 48.6   (1.21) 35.3   (0.98) 79.2   (0.80) 17.1   (0.89)
†Not applicable.
1 This column shows percentages of public school students only. Private school students are excluded from the analysis.
2 There were 160 cases excluded from the school type analysis because parents reported the school as a private school when it was later found to be a public school, and therefore questions about whether the school was assigned were not asked.
3 Students who attended chosen public schools were automatically coded as "yes" for whether or not their district allowed public school choice.
4 Poor children are those whose family incomes were below the Census Bureau’s poverty threshold in the year prior to data collection; near-poor children are those whose family incomes ranged from the poverty threshold to 199 percent of the poverty threshold; and nonpoor children are those whose family incomes were at or above 200 percent of the poverty threshold. The poverty threshold is a dollar amount that varies depending on a family’s size and composition and is updated annually to account for inflation. In 2011, for example, the poverty threshold for a family of four with two children was $22,811. Survey respondents are asked to select the range within which their income falls, rather than giving the exact amount of their income; therefore, the measure of poverty status is an approximation.
NOTE: Data exclude homeschooled children. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (PFI-NHES:2012). (This table was prepared September 2014.)