Number of public school districts and public and private elementary and secondary schools: Selected years, 1869-70 to 2002-03

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Table 85.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
           |            |                Public schools\2\               |      Private schools\2,3\
           |     Regular|________________________________________________|______________________________
           |      public|    Total,|  Total,|   Schools with   |  Schools|         |   Schools|  Schools
School     |      school|       all| schools| elementary grades|     with|         |      with|     with
year       |districts\1\|schools\4\|    with|__________________|secondary| Total\4\|elementary|secondary
           |            |          |reported| Total |     One- |   grades|         |    grades|   grades
           |            |          |   grade|       |  teacher |         |         |          |
           |            |          |spans\5\|       |          |         |         |          |
___________|____________|__________|________|_______|__________|_________|_________|__________|_________
1          |          2 |        3 |      4 |     5 |        6 |       7 |       8 |        9 |      10
___________|____________|__________|________|_______|__________|_________|_________|__________|_________
1869-70 ...|       ---  |   116,312|     ---|    ---|     ---  |      ---|      ---|      --- |      ---
1879-80 ...|       ---  |   178,122|     ---|    ---|     ---  |      ---|      ---|      --- |      ---
1889-90 ...|       ---  |   224,526|     ---|    ---|     ---  |      ---|      ---|      --- |      ---
1899-1900 .|       ---  |   248,279|     ---|    ---|     ---  |      ---|      ---|      --- |      ---
1909-10 ...|       ---  |   265,474|     ---|    ---|   212,448|      ---|      ---|      --- |      ---
           |            |          |     ---|       |          |         |         |          |
1919-20 ...|       ---  |   271,319|     ---|    ---|   187,948|      ---|      ---|      --- |      ---
1929-30 ...|       ---  |   248,117|     ---|238,306|   148,712|   23,930|      ---|     9,275|    3,258
1939-40 ...|     117,108|   226,762|     ---|    ---|   113,600|      ---|      ---|    11,306|    3,568
1949-50 ...|      83,718|       ---|     ---|128,225|    59,652|   24,542|      ---|    10,375|    3,331
1951-52 ...|      71,094|       ---|     ---|123,763|    50,742|   23,746|      ---|    10,666|    3,322
           |            |          |        |       |          |         |         |          |
1959-60 ...|      40,520|       ---|     ---| 91,853|    20,213|   25,784|      ---|    13,574|    4,061
1961-62 ...|      35,676|       ---|     ---| 81,910|    13,333|   25,350|      ---|    14,762|    4,129
1963-64 ...|      31,705|       ---|     ---| 77,584|     9,895|   26,431|      ---|      --- |    4,451
1965-66 ...|      26,983|       ---|     ---| 73,216|     6,491|   26,597|   17,849|    15,340|    4,606
1967-68 ...|      22,010|       ---|  94,197| 70,879|     4,146|   27,011|      ---|      --- |      ---
           |            |          |        |       |          |         |         |          |
1970-71 ...|      17,995|       ---|  89,372| 65,800|     1,815|   25,352|      ---|    14,372|    3,770
1973-74 ...|      16,730|       ---|  88,655| 65,070|     1,365|   25,906|      ---|      --- |      ---
1975-76 ...|      16,376|    88,597|  87,034| 63,242|     1,166|   25,330|      ---|      --- |      ---
1976-77 ...|      16,271|       ---|  86,501| 62,644|     1,111|   25,378|   19,910|    16,385|    5,904
1978-79 ...|      16,014|       ---|  84,816| 61,982|     1,056|   24,504|   19,489|    16,097|    5,766
           |            |          |        |       |          |         |         |          |
1979-80 ...|      15,929|    87,004|     ---|    ---|     ---  |      ---|      ---|      --- |      ---
1980-81 ...|      15,912|    85,982|  83,688| 61,069|       921|   24,362|   20,764|    16,792|    5,678
1982-83 ...|      15,824|    84,740|  82,039| 59,656|       798|   23,988|      ---|      --- |      ---
1983-84 ...|      15,747|    84,178|  81,418| 59,082|       838|   23,947|\6\27,694|\6\ 20,872|\6\ 7,862
1984-85    |        --- |    84,007|  81,147| 58,827|       825|   23,916|      ---|      --- |      ---
           |            |          |        |       |          |         |         |          |
1985-86 ...|        --- |      --- |     ---|    ---|     ---  |     --- |\6\25,616|\6\ 20,252|\6\ 7,387
1986-87 ...|\7\   15,713|    83,455|  82,190| 60,784|       763|   23,389|      ---|      --- |      ---
1987-88 ...|\7\   15,577|    83,248|  81,416| 59,754|       729|   23,841|\6\26,807|\6\ 22,959|\6\ 8,418
1988-89 ...|\7\   15,376|    83,165|  81,579| 60,176|       583|   23,638|      ---|      --- |      ---
1989-90 ...|\7\   15,367|    83,425|  81,880| 60,699|       630|   23,461|      ---|      --- |      ---
           |            |          |        |       |          |         |         |          |
1990-91 ...|\7\   15,358|    84,538|  82,475| 61,340|       617|   23,460|\6\24,690|\6\ 22,223|\6\ 8,989
1991-92 ...|\7\   15,173|    84,578|  82,506| 61,739|       569|   23,248|\6\25,998|\6\ 23,523|\6\ 9,282
1992-93 ...|\7\   15,025|    84,497|  82,896| 62,225|       430|   23,220|      ---|      --- |      ---
1993-94 ...|\7\   14,881|    85,393|  83,431| 62,726|       442|   23,379|\6\26,093|\6\ 23,543|\6\10,555
1994-95 ...|\7\   14,772|    86,221|  84,476| 63,572|       458|   23,668|      ---|      --- |      ---
           |            |          |        |       |          |         |         |          |
1995-96 ...|\7\   14,766|    87,125|  84,958| 63,961|       474|   23,793|   27,686|    25,153|   10,942
1996-97 ...|\7\   14,841|    88,223|  86,092| 64,785|       487|   24,287|      ---|      --- |      ---
1997-98 ...|\7\   14,805|    89,508|  87,541| 65,859|       476|   24,802|   27,402|    24,915|   10,779
1998-99 ...|\7\   14,891|    90,874|  89,259| 67,183|       463|   25,797|      ---|      --- |      ---
1999-2000 .|\7\   14,928|    92,012|  90,538| 68,173|       423|   26,407|   27,223|    24,685|   10,693
           |            |          |        |       |          |         |         |          |
2000-01 ...|\7\   14,859|    93,273|  91,691| 69,697|       411|   27,090|      ---|      --- |      ---
2001-02 ...|\7\   14,559|    94,112|  92,696| 70,516|       408|   27,468|   29,273|    26,569|   11,846
2002-03 ...|\7\   14,465|    95,615|  93,869| 71,270|       366|   28,151|      ---|      --- |      ---
___________|____________|__________|________|_______|__________|_________|_________|__________|_________

---Not available.
\1\Includes operating and nonoperating districts.
\2\Schools with both elementary and secondary programs are included under elementary schools and also under secondary schools.
\3\Data for most years prior to 1976-77 are partly estimated.
\4\Includes regular schools and special schools not classified by grade span.
\5\Includes elementary, secondary, and combined elementary/secondary schools.
\6\These data are from sample surveys and should not be compared directly with the data for earlier years.
\7\Because of expanded survey coverage, data are not directly comparable with figures prior to 1986.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1870 through 1910; Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, 1919-20 through 1949-50; Statistics of State School Systems, 1959-60 through 1967-68; Statistics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Systems, 1970-71 through 1980-81; Statistics of Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1970-71 through 1979-80; Private Schools in American Education; Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), "Private School Questionnaire," 1987-88 and 1990-91; Private School Universe Survey (PSS), 1991-92 through 2001-02; and The NCES Common Core of Data (CCD), "Local Education Agency Universe Survey" and "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey," 1982-83 through 2002-03. (This table was prepared September 2004.)

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