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Digest of Education Statistics
2018 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


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.)

2018 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest