Closed schools

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

Response:

While the total number of public schools in the country has remained between 98,000 and 99,000 in recent years, new schools have opened and some schools have closed. In 2014–15, there were 1,573 school closures. The schools that closed had enrolled about 212,000 students in the prior school year (2013–14). Of the schools that closed, 1,118 were regular schools, 66 were special education schools, 23 were vocational schools, and 366 were alternative schools. The number of schools that closed in 2014–15 was higher than the number in 2000–01 (1,193); however, the number of annual school closures fluctuated during this period, ranging from about 1,200 to 2,200. 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. (2018). Digest of Education Statistics, 2016 (NCES 2017-094), Chapter 2.

Number and enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools that have closed, by school level and type: Selected years, 1995–96 through 2014–15
School level and type	1995–96	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15
Total, all schools	954	1,180	1,193	1,412	1,368	2,168	1,913	1,553	1,877	2,120	1,515	1,822	1,929	1,840	1,493	1,737	1,573
School type
Regular	686	970	908	1,018	985	1,248	1,190	1,171	1,348	1,450	1,059	1,321	1,486	1,340	1,075	1,179	1,118
Special education	110	86	84	118	91	114	271	88	160	195	99	235	72	87	83	90	66
Vocational	17	18	17	90	27	33	18	28	14	30	15	11	7	11	66	20	23
Alternative1	141	106	184	186	265	773	434	266	355	445	342	255	364	402	269	448	366
School level and type
Elementary2	497	559	601	697	721	947	901	770	846	844	769	936	1,073	1,020	776	864	789
Regular	449	529	563	648	660	870	847	725	771	804	713	893	1,010	959	726	778	729
Special education	28	16	20	21	26	23	25	13	53	20	22	13	18	18	18	33	25
Vocational	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Alternative1	20	14	16	28	35	54	29	31	21	20	33	30	45	43	32	52	35
Secondary3	199	300	302	313	245	347	302	342	308	394	368	346	436	451	421	502	453
Regular	114	235	173	141	127	144	177	192	171	233	186	212	237	238	204	231	249
Special education	12	8	19	12	9	10	4	11	24	19	21	12	15	15	24	15	9
Vocational	17	18	14	89	27	33	18	27	13	29	13	11	7	10	64	19	20
Alternative1	56	39	96	71	82	160	103	112	100	113	148	111	177	188	129	237	175
Combined elementary/secondary4	42	143	146	168	124	158	321	184	193	172	164	91	157	207	170	183	220
Regular	10	96	83	76	57	54	68	82	65	65	50	42	74	82	64	67	88
Special education	13	17	22	29	22	30	28	38	45	48	34	16	24	34	34	33	25
Vocational	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	2	0	3
Alternative1	19	30	40	62	45	74	225	64	83	58	79	33	59	90	70	83	104
Other (not classified by grade span)	216	178	144	234	278	716	389	257	530	710	214	449	263	162	126	188	111
Regular	113	110	89	153	141	180	98	172	341	348	110	174	165	61	81	103	52
Special education	57	45	23	56	34	51	214	26	38	108	22	194	15	20	7	9	7
Vocational	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Alternative1	46	23	32	25	103	485	77	59	151	254	82	81	83	81	38	76	52
All charter schools5	—	24	72	111	85	74	171	206	267	133	161	189	216	202	183	284	308
Prior year enrollment of schools that have closed
Total, enrollment	173,766	187,493	209,228	171,669	195,033	262,183	297,487	229,259	242,388	268,212	243,166	306,806	321,246	300,764	240,704	274,397	211,681

— 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. (2018). Digest of Education Statistics, 2016 (NCES 2017-094), Table 216.95.

Related Tables and Figures:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2017, Selected Statistics From the Public Elementary and Secondary Education Universe: School Year 2015–16, Table 1. Operational and student membership status of public elementary and secondary schools and agencies in the United States, by type: School year 2015–16
  

Other Resources:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2018, 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.