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Digest of Education Statistics
2021 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 216.95. Number and enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools that have closed, by school level, type, and charter status: 2010-11 through 2019-20
School level, type, and
charter status
2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
  Number of schools that closed
Total, all schools 1,741 1,692 1,394 1,644 1,336 1,070 1,068 1,310 1,122 1,130
School type                    
Regular 1,352 1,274 986 1,124 974 823 709 889 876 827
Special education 72 81 82 87 61 30 66 217 42 129
Vocational 6 12 68 18 23 14 9 13 24 22
Alternative1 311 325 258 415 278 203 284 191 180 152

School level and type
                   
Prekindergarten 53 50 33 47 27 22 31 74 59 76
Regular 45 43 28 39 23 19 24 58 55 63
Special education 6 6 5 5 3 3 7 14 4 13
Vocational 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 2 1 0 3 1 0 0 2 0 0

Elementary
759 725 587 601 482 450 390 492 410 457
Regular 727 698 561 554 449 422 352 400 394 438
Special education 12 9 12 18 16 6 12 79 7 13
Vocational 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 20 18 13 28 17 22 26 13 9 6

Middle
261 277 185 240 248 192 184 217 194 175
Regular 232 236 158 212 229 174 155 179 177 155
Special education 1 3 1 9 3 3 5 24 3 7
Vocational 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 0
Alternative1 28 38 25 19 15 15 24 14 11 13

Secondary and high
428 458 443 497 437 317 343 387 315 244
Regular 204 223 180 211 213 167 130 199 162 117
Special education 26 20 28 20 14 11 11 53 12 20
Vocational 5 11 64 6 21 11 7 9 17 10
Alternative1 193 204 171 260 189 128 195 126 124 97

Other, ungraded, and not
    applicable/not
    reported
240 182 146 259 142 89 120 140 144 178
Regular 144 74 59 108 60 41 48 53 88 54
Special education 27 43 36 35 25 7 31 47 16 76
Vocational 1 1 2 11 1 3 2 4 4 12
Alternative1 68 64 49 105 56 38 39 36 36 36

All charter schools2
157 185 153 232 206 236 181 247 215 235
  Prior year enrollment of schools that have closed
Total, enrollment 321,246 300,764 240,704 269,615 211,472 194,653 185,714 266,777 231,206 214,278
School type                    
Regular 303,604 282,993 224,884 249,350 197,868 183,032 174,077 251,765 223,165 208,464
Special education 1,933 3,909 1,168 4,170 2,654 917 1,566 3,953 1,178 1,654
Vocational 46 28 1,164 1,578 1,858 650 249 477 911 80
Alternative1 15,663 13,834 13,488 14,517 9,092 10,054 9,822 10,582 5,952 4,080

School level and type
                   
Prekindergarten 4,392 4,268 2,556 3,556 2,487 788 3,383 5,821 2,229 4,393
Regular 4,101 4,220 2,544 3,499 2,396 788 3,252 4,444 2,225 4,029
Special education 270 28 12 56 91 0 131 626 4 364
Vocational 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 21 20 0 1 0 0 0 751 0 0

Elementary
174,635 162,855 131,677 145,541 93,489 100,511 86,681 109,151 101,641 114,150
Regular 173,264 161,463 130,684 142,333 91,873 97,795 85,244 107,264 100,694 113,963
Special education 325 977 155 1,157 772 258 410 1,066 336 145
Vocational 0 0 472 308 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 1,046 415 366 1,743 844 2,458 1,027 821 611 42

Middle
70,925 69,325 50,596 53,584 53,017 46,938 43,618 50,897 49,230 40,727
Regular 69,980 67,892 49,031 52,607 52,022 45,887 42,721 49,717 49,150 40,195
Special education 25 527 105 780 354 177 56 194 36 89
Vocational 0 0 403 0 160 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 920 906 1,057 197 481 874 841 986 44 443

Secondary and high
55,696 52,684 48,161 58,567 52,631 37,531 39,639 68,011 48,060 31,139
Regular 45,124 42,186 38,702 46,144 43,939 31,999 32,438 60,320 41,543 27,802
Special education 697 617 548 878 356 205 203 1,041 613 156
Vocational 22 21 202 1,270 1,698 650 249 477 911 80
Alternative1 9,853 9,860 8,709 10,275 6,638 4,677 6,749 6,173 4,993 3,101

Other, ungraded, and not
    applicable/not
    reported
15,598 11,632 7,714 8,367 9,848 8,885 12,393 32,897 30,046 23,869
Regular 11,135 7,232 3,923 4,767 7,638 6,563 10,422 30,020 29,553 22,475
Special education 616 1,760 348 1,299 1,081 277 766 1,026 189 900
Vocational 24 7 87 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alternative1 3,823 2,633 3,356 2,301 1,129 2,045 1,205 1,851 304 494

All charter schools2
26,208 31,074 27,921 36,997 34,067 41,697 36,856 93,549 64,859 59,009
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 Charter schools are also included under the school level and type categories, as appropriate.
NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This table indicates the school year by which the school no longer operated (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. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey," 2010-11 through 2019-20. (This table was prepared October 2021.)

2021 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest