Digest of Education Statistics: 2018
Digest of Education Statistics: 2018

NCES 2020-009
December 2019


Table 216.95. Number and enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools that have closed, by school level, type, and charter status: Selected years, 1995-96 through 2016-17
School level, type, and
charter status
1995-96 2000-01 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
  Number of schools that closed
Total, all schools 954 1,193 2,168 1,913 1,553 1,877 2,120 1,515 1,822 1,929 1,840 1,493 1,737 1,573 1,160 1,098
School type                                
Regular 686 908 1,248 1,190 1,171 1,348 1,450 1,059 1,321 1,486 1,340 1,075 1,179 1,118 893 738
Special education 110 84 114 271 88 160 195 99 235 72 87 83 90 66 32 66
Vocational 17 17 33 18 28 14 30 15 11 7 11 66 20 23 14 10
Alternative1 141 184 773 434 266 355 445 342 255 364 402 269 448 366 221 284
                                 
School level and type                                
Elementary2 497 601 947 901 770 846 844 769 936 1,073 1,020 776 864 789 645 589
Regular 449 563 870 847 725 771 804 713 893 1,010 959 726 778 729 597 524
Special education 28 20 23 25 13 53 20 22 13 18 18 18 33 25 13 22
Vocational 0 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Alternative1 20 16 54 29 31 21 20 33 30 45 43 32 52 35 35 43
                                 
Secondary3 199 302 347 302 342 308 394 368 346 436 451 421 502 453 294 330
Regular 114 173 144 177 192 171 233 186 212 237 238 204 231 249 175 137
Special education 12 19 10 4 11 24 19 21 12 15 15 24 15 9 11 10
Vocational 17 14 33 18 27 13 29 13 11 7 10 64 19 20 14 8
Alternative1 56 96 160 103 112 100 113 148 111 177 188 129 237 175 94 175
                                 
Combined elementary/secondary4 42 146 158 321 184 193 172 164 91 157 207 170 183 220 150 142
Regular 10 83 54 68 82 65 65 50 42 74 82 64 67 88 68 63
Special education 13 22 30 28 38 45 48 34 16 24 34 34 33 25 7 21
Vocational 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 3 0 2
Alternative1 19 40 74 225 64 83 58 79 33 59 90 70 83 104 75 56
                                 
Other (not classified by
   grade span)
216 144 716 389 257 530 710 214 449 263 162 126 188 111 71 37
Regular 113 89 180 98 172 341 348 110 174 165 61 81 103 52 53 14
Special education 57 23 51 214 26 38 108 22 194 15 20 7 9 7 1 13
Vocational 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 46 32 485 77 59 151 254 82 81 83 81 38 76 52 17 10
                                 
All charter schools5 72 74 171 206 267 133 161 189 216 202 183 284 308 280 181
  Prior year enrollment of schools that have closed
Total, enrollment 173,766 209,228 262,183 297,487 229,259 242,388 268,212 243,166 306,806 321,246 300,764 240,704 274,397 211,681 194,653 188,561
School type                                
Regular 151,574 198,699 242,383 282,432 216,360 227,260 253,409 227,714 292,915 304,001 281,961 227,444 252,172 198,338 183,032 176,785
Special education 4,475 1,665 4,144 2,799 3,068 4,745 4,060 1,916 2,173 1,709 3,765 1,168 4,331 1,881 917 1,566
Vocational 1,613 632 719 2,975 73 429 183 1,665 767 22 26 289 1,578 1,858 650 388
Alternative1 16,104 8,232 14,937 9,281 9,758 9,954 10,560 11,871 10,951 15,514 15,012 11,803 16,316 9,604 10,054 9,822
                                 
School level and type                                
Elementary2 112,328 134,934 194,752 213,607 161,649 172,403 179,554 171,722 221,681 242,193 225,205 174,885 195,776 139,599 138,734 128,119
Regular 108,440 134,060 192,117 211,822 158,744 169,895 176,862 169,815 219,469 239,913 222,186 173,272 190,138 137,237 135,061 125,733
Special education 2,991 338 1,040 1,153 1,158 1,892 2,131 651 727 404 1,539 272 2,042 919 368 588
Vocational 0 2 0 0 0 9 0 569 0 0 0 0 308 0 0 0
Alternative1 897 534 1,595 632 1,747 607 561 687 1,485 1,876 1,480 1,341 3,288 1,443 3,305 1,798
                                 
Secondary3 48,074 47,950 52,437 60,029 54,489 55,834 66,163 55,261 68,548 56,935 54,558 51,820 59,920 55,088 42,270 42,001
Regular 39,307 42,666 42,750 51,547 49,335 48,797 60,085 45,800 60,734 48,430 46,345 43,775 49,374 47,759 37,816 35,647
Special education 398 121 172 108 83 1,126 440 501 508 520 404 500 633 286 205 147
Vocational 1,613 592 719 2,975 73 420 183 1,096 767 22 19 202 1,270 1,698 650 165
Alternative1 6,756 4,571 8,796 5,399 4,998 5,491 5,455 7,864 6,539 7,963 7,790 7,343 8,643 5,345 3,599 6,042
                                 
Combined elementary/secondary4 12,418 25,031 13,150 22,022 12,993 12,157 19,349 16,093 12,151 21,360 20,931 13,963 18,614 16,994 13,649 18,441
Regular 3,743 21,973 7,484 18,415 8,281 7,682 16,295 12,081 8,342 14,941 13,430 10,361 12,660 13,342 10,155 15,405
Special education 326 701 1,328 840 1,791 1,293 1,008 692 882 744 1,752 396 1,569 676 344 831
Vocational 0 38 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 87 0 160 0 223
Alternative1 8,349 2,319 4,338 2,767 2,921 3,182 2,046 3,320 2,927 5,675 5,742 3,119 4,385 2,816 3,150 1,982
                                 
Other (not classified by
   grade span)
946 1,313 1,844 1,829 128 1,994 3,146 90 4,426 758 70 36 87 0 0 0
Regular 84 0 32 648 0 886 167 18 4,370 717 0 36 0 0 0 0
Special education 760 505 1,604 698 36 434 481 72 56 41 70 0 87 0 0 0
Vocational 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 102 808 208 483 92 674 2,498 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
                                 
All charter schools5 5,925 6,797 21,505 14,118 15,340 12,226 20,537 17,954 24,165 29,095 24,437 38,327 33,589 41,482 36,856
—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, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey," 1995-96 through 2016-17. (This table was prepared April 2019.)