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Digest of Education Statistics
2012 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 109. Number and enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools that have closed, by school level and type: Selected years, 1995-96 through 2010-11
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
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
  Number of schools that closed
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
                           
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
Special education 110 86 84 118 91 114 271 88 160 195 99 235 72
Vocational 17 18 17 90 27 33 18 28 14 30 15 11 7
Alternative1 141 106 184 186 265 773 434 266 355 445 342 255 364
                           
School level and type                          
Elementary2 497 559 601 697 721 947 901 770 846 844 769 936 1,073
Regular 449 529 563 648 660 870 847 725 771 804 713 893 1,010
Special education 28 16 20 21 26 23 25 13 53 20 22 13 18
Vocational 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0
Alternative1 20 14 16 28 35 54 29 31 21 20 33 30 45
                           
Secondary3 199 300 302 313 245 347 302 342 308 394 368 346 436
Regular 114 235 173 141 127 144 177 192 171 233 186 212 237
Special education 12 8 19 12 9 10 4 11 24 19 21 12 15
Vocational 17 18 14 89 27 33 18 27 13 29 13 11 7
Alternative1 56 39 96 71 82 160 103 112 100 113 148 111 177
                           
Combined elementary/secondary4 42 143 146 168 124 158 321 184 193 172 164 91 157
Regular 10 96 83 76 57 54 68 82 65 65 50 42 74
Special education 13 17 22 29 22 30 28 38 45 48 34 16 24
Vocational 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Alternative1 19 30 40 62 45 74 225 64 83 58 79 33 59
                           
Other (not classified by
     grade span)
216 178 144 234 278 716 389 257 530 710 214 449 263
Regular 113 110 89 153 141 180 98 172 341 348 110 174 165
Special education 57 45 23 56 34 51 214 26 38 108 22 194 15
Vocational 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
                           
All charter schools5 24 72 111 85 74 171 206 267 133 161 189 216
  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
                           
School type                          
Regular 151,574 175,083 198,699 161,663 185,536 242,383 282,432 216,360 227,260 253,409 227,714 292,915 304,001
Special education 4,475 2,873 1,665 2,840 1,789 4,144 2,799 3,068 4,745 4,060 1,916 2,173 1,709
Vocational 1,613 1,021 632 75 223 719 2,975 73 429 183 1,665 767 22
Alternative1 16,104 8,516 8,232 7,091 7,485 14,937 9,281 9,758 9,954 10,560 11,871 10,951 15,514
                           
School level and type                          
Elementary2 112,328 128,426 134,934 125,753 146,709 194,752 213,607 161,649 172,403 179,554 171,722 221,681 242,193
Regular 108,440 126,944 134,060 124,170 144,013 192,117 211,822 158,744 169,895 176,862 169,815 219,469 239,913
Special education 2,991 734 338 591 1,020 1,040 1,153 1,158 1,892 2,131 651 727 404
Vocational 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 569 0 0
Alternative1 897 748 534 992 1,676 1,595 632 1,747 607 561 687 1,485 1,876
                           
Secondary3 48,074 44,371 47,950 30,817 33,243 52,437 60,029 54,489 55,834 66,163 55,261 68,548 56,935
Regular 39,307 39,919 42,666 27,752 30,271 42,750 51,547 49,335 48,797 60,085 45,800 60,734 48,430
Special education 398 509 121 175 357 172 108 83 1,126 440 501 508 520
Vocational 1,613 1,021 592 72 223 719 2,975 73 420 183 1,096 767 22
Alternative1 6,756 2,922 4,571 2,818 2,392 8,796 5,399 4,998 5,491 5,455 7,864 6,539 7,963
                           
Combined elementary/secondary4 12,418 13,083 25,031 12,622 12,957 13,150 22,022 12,993 12,157 19,349 16,093 12,151 21,360
Regular 3,743 8,044 21,973 8,999 9,451 7,484 18,415 8,281 7,682 16,295 12,081 8,342 14,941
Special education 326 515 701 410 365 1,328 840 1,791 1,293 1,008 692 882 744
Vocational 0 0 38 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 8,349 4,524 2,319 3,210 3,141 4,338 2,767 2,921 3,182 2,046 3,320 2,927 5,675
                           
Other (not classified by
     grade span)
946 1,613 1,313 2,477 2,124 1,844 1,829 128 1,994 3,146 90 4,426 758
Regular 84 176 0 742 1,801 32 648 0 886 167 18 4,370 717
Special education 760 1,115 505 1,664 47 1,604 698 36 434 481 72 56 41
Vocational 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 102 322 808 71 276 208 483 92 674 2,498 0 0 0
                           
All charter schools5 7,141 5,925 11,134 11,894 6,797 21,505 14,118 15,340 12,226 20,537 17,954 24,165
—Not available.
1 Includes 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.
2 Includes schools beginning with grade 6 or below and with no grade higher than 8.
3 Includes schools with no grade lower than 7.
4 Includes schools beginning with grade 6 or below and ending with grade 9 or above.
5 Charter 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, Core of Data (CCD), "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey," 1995-96 through 2010-11. (This table was prepared April 2013.)

2012 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest