Closed schools

Question:
How many public schools in the United States have closed?

Response:

In 1929–30, there were approximately 248,000 public schools, compared with about 98,500 in 2017–18. However, the number of public schools has increased in recent decades: Between 1988–89 and 2006–07, there was an increase of approximately 15,600 schools, up to a total of 98,800. Since 2006–07, the number of public schools has remained relatively stable, varying by fewer than 500 schools from year to year.

While the total number of public schools in the country has remained relatively stable in recent years, new schools have opened and some schools have closed. In 2017–18, there were 1,310 school closures. The schools that closed had enrolled about 267,000 students in the prior school year (2016–17). Of the schools that closed, 889 were regular schools, 217 were special education schools, 13 were vocational schools, and 191 were alternative schools. Of these closed schools, 247 were classified as charter schools. The number of schools that closed in 2017–18 was higher than the number in 2015–16 (1,160) or 2016–17 (1,098); however, the number of annual school closures fluctuated during the 2000–01 to 2017–18 period, ranging from 1,098 to 2,168. School closures do not necessarily reflect the number of school buildings that have been closed, since a school may share a building with another school, or one school may have multiple buildings.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2021). Digest of Education Statistics, 2019 (NCES 2021-009), Chapter 2.

Number and enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools that have closed, by school level, type, and charter status: Selected years, 1995–96 through 2017–18
School level, type, and charter status	1995–96	2000–01	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Total, all schools	954	1,193	1,913	1,553	1,877	2,120	1,515	1,822	1,929	1,840	1,493	1,737	1,573	1,160	1,098	1,310
School type
Regular	686	908	1,190	1,171	1,348	1,450	1,059	1,321	1,486	1,340	1,075	1,179	1,118	893	738	889
Special education	110	84	271	88	160	195	99	235	72	87	83	90	66	32	66	217
Vocational	17	17	18	28	14	30	15	11	7	11	66	20	23	14	10	13
Alternative1	141	184	434	266	355	445	342	255	364	402	269	448	366	221	284	191
School level and type
Elementary2	497	601	901	770	846	844	769	936	1,073	1,020	776	864	789	645	589	789
Regular	449	563	847	725	771	804	713	893	1,010	959	726	778	729	597	524	612
Special education	28	20	25	13	53	20	22	13	18	18	18	33	25	13	22	133
Vocational	0	2	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3
Alternative1	20	16	29	31	21	20	33	30	45	43	32	52	35	35	43	41
Secondary3	199	302	302	342	308	394	368	346	436	451	421	502	453	294	330	355
Regular	114	173	177	192	171	233	186	212	237	238	204	231	249	175	137	191
Special education	12	19	4	11	24	19	21	12	15	15	24	15	9	11	10	54
Vocational	17	14	18	27	13	29	13	11	7	10	64	19	20	14	8	9
Alternative1	56	96	103	112	100	113	148	111	177	188	129	237	175	94	175	101
Combined elementary/secondary4	42	146	321	184	193	172	164	91	157	207	170	183	220	150	142	164
Regular	10	83	68	82	65	65	50	42	74	82	64	67	88	68	63	85
Special education	13	22	28	38	45	48	34	16	24	34	34	33	25	7	21	29
Vocational	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	2	0	3	0	2	1
Alternative1	19	40	225	64	83	58	79	33	59	90	70	83	104	75	56	49
Other (not classified by grade span)	216	144	389	257	530	710	214	449	263	162	126	188	111	71	37	2
Regular	113	89	98	172	341	348	110	174	165	61	81	103	52	53	14	1
Special education	57	23	214	26	38	108	22	194	15	20	7	9	7	1	13	1
Vocational	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Alternative1	46	32	77	59	151	254	82	81	83	81	38	76	52	17	10	0
All charter schools5	—	72	171	206	267	133	161	189	216	202	183	284	308	280	181	247
Prior year enrollment of schools that have closed
Total, enrollment	173,766	209,228	297,487	229,259	242,388	268,212	243,166	306,806	321,246	300,764	240,704	274,397	211,681	194,653	188,561	266,777

— Not available.

¹Includes schools that provide nontraditional education, address needs of students that typically cannot be met in regular schools, serve as adjuncts to regular schools, or fall outside the categories of regular, special education, or vocational education.

²Includes schools beginning with grade 6 or below and with no grade higher than 8.

³Includes schools with no grade lower than 7.

⁴Includes schools beginning with grade 6 or below and ending with grade 9 or above.

⁵Charter schools are also included under the school level and type categories, as appropriate.

NOTE: This table indicates the school year by which the school no longer operated (generally it closed between that school year and the prior school year). The closure of a school does not necessarily mean that a building is no longer used for educational purposes. A single school may share a building with another school, or one school may be housed in several buildings.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2021). Digest of Education Statistics, 2019 (NCES 2021-009), Table 216.95.

Related Tables and Figures:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2021, Nonfiscal Data Tables, Table 1. Operational and student membership status of public elementary and secondary schools and agencies in the United States, by type: School year 2018–19
  

Other Resources:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2021, Common Core of Data (CCD): These tables present the school, enrollment, and teacher counts reported at the school level aggregated by various school characteristics including state, district, metro-area, city, charter status, and operational status.