What parents said about choices for schools for their K-12 students: Percentage of students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade whose parent/guardian reported that various factors were related to their choice of school, by selected student, parent, and household characteristics: 2019

Characteristics	Parent/ guardian moved to their neighbor- hood for the student's current school		Parent/ guardian felt they had a choice of school for their student	Parent/ guardian considered other schools for their student		School the student attended was parent's/ guardian's first choice	Parent/ guardian reported that the student's school district allows families to choose the student's school
Total	18		61	36		81	34
Student’s race/ethnicity
American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic	14	!	51	39		83	35
Asian or Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic	28		63	35		79	28
Asian, non-Hispanic	29		62	35		80	28
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic	17	!	78	35	!	62	17	!
Black, non-Hispanic	15		59	42		73	35
Hispanic	16		60	37		80	39
Cuban	11		63	38		88	44
Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano	14		60	35		79	39
Puerto Rican	21		57	39		77	37
Another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin or more than one Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin	18		61	40		81	37
White, non-Hispanic	19		62	33		84	33
Other race, non-Hispanic¹	17		57	37		78	34

Recency of immigration²
Student born outside the U.S.	25		65	29		83	31
Hispanic	28		62	26		87	33
Non-Hispanic	23		67	31		80	30
First generation	18		61	39		80	36
Hispanic	13		60	38		80	41
Non-Hispanic	24		61	40		81	30
Second generation or higher	17		61	35		81	34
Hispanic	17		60	38		79	36
Non-Hispanic	18		61	35		81	34

Highest education level of parent(s)/guardian(s)
Less than high school	12		58	26		80	35
High school/GED	13		56	28		80	30
Vocational/technical or some college	17		59	36		78	34
Bachelor’s degree	20		64	39		82	36
Graduate or professional degree	25		67	44		85	37

English spoken at home by parent(s)/guardian(s)³
Both/only parent(s)/guardian(s) speak(s) English	18		61	37		81	34
One of two parents/guardians speaks English	20		60	35		85	35
No parent/guardian speaks English	18		60	29		82	35

Poverty status⁴
At or below poverty threshold	16		55	32		76	30
Between poverty threshold and 200 percent of poverty threshold	13		55	31		79	35
At or above 200 percent of poverty threshold	20		64	38		83	36

Locale of student's household⁵
City	16		69	44		79	43
Suburban	23		59	35		81	30
Town	12		47	28		83	29
Rural	15		58	28		83	33

Region
Northeast	20		53	32		81	22
South	19		55	37		78	31
Midwest	19		68	31		84	38
West	15		68	41		82	45

!Interpret data with caution. The coefficient of variation (CV) for this estimate is between 30 and 50 percent.
¹"Other race, non-Hispanic" includes non-Hispanic students of Two or more races, and non-Hispanic students whose parents did not choose any race from the categories provided on the race item in the questionnaire.
² Students born outside the U.S. were not born in any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Northern Marianas. Students defined as "first generation" were born in the United States, but one or both of their parents were born outside the United States. Students defined as "second generation or higher" were born in the United States, as were both of their parents. Students born abroad to U.S.-born parents are considered born in the United States and counted as "second generation or higher."
³ Complete descriptions of the categories for English spoken at home by parents/guardians are as follows: (1) Both parents/guardians or the only parent/guardian learned English first or currently speak(s) English in the home, (2) One of two parents/guardians in a two-parent/guardian household learned English first or currently speaks English in the home, and (3) No parent/guardian learned English first and both parents/guardians or the only parent/guardian currently speak(s) a non-English language in the home.
⁴ The poverty threshold is a dollar amount determined by the federal government and updated annually to account for inflation, and which varies depending on a family's size and composition. Thresholds used to define poverty are based on weighted averages from 2018 Census poverty thresholds. In 2018, for example, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four was $25,701. 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.
⁵ Locale of student’s household classifies the residential ZIP code into a set of four major locale categories: city, suburban, town, rural.
NOTE: Students who were homeschooled full or part-time were excluded from the table.
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), 2019.