Table 206.40.

Percentage of students enrolled in grades 1 through 12 whose parents reported having public school choice, considered other schools, reported current school was their first choice, or moved to their current neighborhood for the public school, by school type and selected child and household characteristics: 2016

[Standard errors appear in parentheses]
School type and selected child or household characteristic	Public choice available			Considered other schools			School was parent's first choice			Moved to neighborhood for public school1
1	2			3			4			5
Total	41.2		(0.69)	27.7		(0.58)	80.1		(0.56)	20.0		(0.62)
School type2
Public, assigned	27.5		(0.82)	21.0		(0.66)	78.9		(0.64)	22.4		(0.70)
Public, chosen3	100.0		(0.00)	42.6		(1.50)	81.6		(1.29)	11.2		(1.07)
Private, religious	20.8		(1.65)	45.7		(2.20)	86.1		(1.78)	†		(†)
Private, nonsectarian	20.2		(3.18)	56.6		(3.64)	88.6		(2.90)	†		(†)
Sex of child
Male	41.5		(0.98)	28.5		(0.86)	79.3		(0.83)	18.6		(0.85)
Female	40.8		(1.00)	26.9		(0.77)	81.0		(0.81)	21.5		(0.82)
Race/ethnicity of child
White	35.7		(0.81)	26.0		(0.65)	84.1		(0.69)	22.3		(0.80)
Black	51.6		(2.20)	31.1		(1.91)	69.6		(2.41)	13.8		(1.47)
Hispanic	46.9		(1.62)	28.7		(1.34)	78.2		(1.35)	17.1		(1.31)
Asian/Pacific Islander	40.3		(2.24)	25.7		(1.96)	80.0		(1.85)	27.4		(2.28)
Asian	40.0		(2.33)	24.7		(1.91)	79.9		(1.91)	27.2		(2.37)
Pacific Islander	44.8		(11.83)	45.8		(12.32)	80.3		(10.12)	31.4	!	(13.93)
Other4	41.0		(2.91)	32.8		(2.47)	79.1		(2.00)	20.4		(2.21)
Disability status of child as
reported by parent
Has a disability	41.5		(1.51)	30.2		(1.43)	76.1		(1.64)	18.5		(1.35)
Does not have a disability	41.1		(0.75)	27.2		(0.58)	81.0		(0.64)	20.3		(0.64)
Grade level
Grades 1 through 5	39.0		(1.19)	27.9		(0.97)	79.8		(0.93)	20.6		(1.00)
Grades 6 through 8	40.8		(1.29)	27.3		(1.20)	78.8		(1.29)	19.0		(1.06)
Grades 9 through 12	44.5		(0.88)	28.0		(0.90)	81.8		(0.78)	19.9		(0.83)
Number of parents in the household
Two parents	40.6		(0.79)	28.6		(0.72)	82.1		(0.65)	20.4		(0.72)
One parent	42.3		(1.39)	26.8		(1.12)	76.3		(1.25)	19.9		(0.98)
Nonparental guardians	43.6		(3.88)	18.3		(2.64)	70.8		(4.07)	13.2		(2.76)
Highest education level of parents
Less than a high school diploma	44.5		(2.54)	20.2		(2.54)	74.4		(2.98)	15.0		(2.14)
High school diploma or GED	42.0		(1.77)	16.2		(1.31)	77.6		(1.55)	12.4		(1.28)
Vocational/technical, associate's degree, or some college	41.6		(1.30)	26.3		(0.94)	77.7		(0.98)	18.0		(0.98)
Bachelor's degree/some graduate school	39.9		(1.20)	32.4		(0.99)	83.9		(1.02)	24.5		(1.10)
Graduate/professional degree	39.6		(1.10)	41.1		(1.13)	84.5		(0.90)	30.2		(1.30)
Poverty status of household5
Poor	42.2		(1.92)	21.5		(1.61)	73.1		(2.00)	15.1		(1.37)
Near-poor	46.4		(1.79)	22.5		(1.29)	77.3		(1.47)	14.3		(1.42)
Nonpoor	39.1		(0.82)	31.3		(0.63)	83.1		(0.58)	23.6		(0.72)
Locale
City	53.1		(1.21)	34.1		(1.28)	77.6		(1.11)	17.8		(1.03)
Suburban	37.1		(0.92)	28.5		(0.81)	80.3		(0.90)	24.4		(0.89)
Town	36.0		(2.34)	18.3		(2.11)	82.0		(2.07)	12.3		(1.50)
Rural	32.1		(1.50)	18.1		(1.13)	83.8		(1.34)	16.3		(1.31)
Region
Northeast	27.0		(1.78)	26.0		(1.55)	80.2		(1.33)	20.4		(1.28)
South	38.9		(1.14)	28.0		(0.95)	77.1		(1.14)	21.0		(0.98)
Midwest	42.7		(1.53)	24.4		(1.21)	83.2		(1.08)	19.8		(1.25)
West	52.9		(1.49)	31.5		(1.27)	81.8		(1.06)	18.5		(1.27)

† Not applicable.

! Interpret data with caution. The coefficient of variation (CV) for this estimate is between 30 and 50 percent.

1 This column shows percentages of public school students only. Private school students are excluded from the analysis.

2 In 31 cases, questions about whether a student's public school was assigned were not asked because parents reported the school as a private school, and it was only later identified as a public school based on administrative data. Due to the missing data, these cases were excluded from the analysis of public chosen and assigned schools.

3 Students who attended chosen public schools were automatically coded as "yes" for whether or not their district allowed public school choice.

4 Includes American Indian/Alaska Native, Two or more races, and race/ethnicity not reported.

5 Poor children are those whose family incomes were below the Census Bureau's poverty threshold in the year prior to data collection; near-poor children are those whose family incomes ranged from the poverty threshold to 199 percent of the poverty threshold; and nonpoor children are those whose family incomes were at or above 200 percent of the poverty threshold. The poverty threshold is a dollar amount that varies depending on a family's size and composition and is updated annually to account for inflation. In 2015, for example, the poverty threshold for a family of four with two children was $24,036. 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.

NOTE: Data exclude homeschooled children. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.

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:2016). (This table was prepared January 2018.)