Number of public school districts and public and private elementary and secondary schools: Selected school years, 1869-70 through 2022-23

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Table 214.10.Number of public school districts and public and private elementary and secondary schools: Selected school years, 1869-70 through 2022-23
School year	Regular public school districts¹	Total, all public and private schools	Public schools					Private schools²
			Total, all public schools³	Total, schools with reported grade spans⁴	Schools with any grade in prekindergarten through grade 8⁵		Schools with any grade in grades 7 through 12⁶	Total, all private schools³		Schools with any grade in prekinder- garten through grade 8⁷		Schools with any grade in grade 7 through 12
			Total, all public schools³	Total, schools with reported grade spans⁴	Total	One-teacher⁸	Schools with any grade in grades 7 through 12⁶	Total, all private schools³				Schools with any grade in grade 7 through 12
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		10		11
1869-70	---	---	116,312	---	---	---	---	---		---		---
1879-80	---	---	178,122	---	---	---	---	---		---		---
1889-90	---	---	224,526	---	---	---	---	---		---		---
1899-1900	---	---	248,279	---	---	---	---	---		---		---
1909-10	---	---	265,474	---	---	212,448	---	---		---		---
1919-20	---	---	271,319	---	---	187,948	---	---		---		---
1929-30	---	---	248,117	---	238,306	148,712	23,930	---		9,275	⁹	3,258	⁹
1939-40	117,108	---	226,762	---	---	113,600	---	---		11,306	⁹	3,568	⁹
1949-50	83,718	---	---	---	128,225	59,652	24,542	---		10,375	⁹	3,331	⁹
1959-60	40,520	---	---	---	91,853	20,213	25,784	---		13,574	⁹	4,061	⁹
1961-62	35,676	125,634	107,260	---	81,910	13,333	25,350	18,374		14,762	⁹	4,129	⁹
1963-64	31,705	---	104,015	---	77,584	9,895		---		---		4,451	⁹
1965-66	26,983	117,662	99,813	---	73,216	6,491	26,597	17,849	⁹	15,340	⁹	4,606	⁹
1967-68	22,010	---	---	94,197	70,879	4,146	27,011	---		---		---
1970-71	17,995	---	---	89,372	65,800	1,815	25,352	---		14,372	⁹	3,770	⁹
1973-74	16,730	---	---	88,655	65,070	1,365	25,906	---		---		---
1975-76	16,376	---	88,597	87,034	63,242	1,166	25,330	---		---		---
1976-77	16,271	---	---	86,501	62,644	1,111	25,378	19,910	⁹	16,385	⁹	5,904	⁹
1978-79	16,014	---	---	84,816	61,982	1,056	24,504	19,489	⁹	16,097	⁹	5,766	⁹
1980-81	15,912	106,746	85,982	83,688	61,069	921	24,362	20,764	⁹	16,792	⁹	5,678	⁹
1982-83	15,824	---	84,740	82,039	59,656	798	23,988	---		---		---
1984-85	---	---	84,007	81,147	58,827	825	23,916	---		---		---
1986-87	15,713	---	83,421	82,316	60,811	763	23,481	---		---		---
1988-89	15,376	---	83,165	81,579	60,176	583	23,638	---		---		---
1990-91	15,358	109,228	84,538	82,475	61,340	617	23,460	24,690		22,223		8,989
1992-93	15,025	---	84,497	82,896	62,225	430	23,220	---		---		---
1994-95	14,772	---	86,221	84,476	63,572	458	23,668	---		---		---
1996-97	14,841	---	88,223	86,092	64,785	487	24,287	---		---		---
1998-99	14,891	---	90,874	89,259	67,183	463	25,797	---		---		---
2000-01	14,859	---	93,273	91,691	69,697	411	27,090	---		---		---
2001-02	14,559	130,007	94,112	92,696	70,516	408	27,468	35,895		33,191		11,846
2002-03	14,465	---	95,615	93,869	71,270	366	28,151	---		---		---
2003-04	14,383	130,407	95,726	93,977	71,195	376	28,219	34,681		31,988		11,188
2004-05	14,205	---	96,513	95,001	71,556	338	29,017	---		---		---
2005-06	14,166	132,436	97,382	95,731	71,733	326	29,705	35,054		32,127		12,184
2006-07	13,856	---	98,793	96,362	72,442	313	29,904	---		---		---
2007-08	13,838	132,656	98,916	97,654	73,011	288	30,542	33,740		30,808		11,870
2008-09	13,809	---	98,706	97,119	72,771	237	29,971	---		---		---
2009-10	13,625	132,183	98,817	97,521	72,870	217	30,381	33,366		30,590		11,941
2010-11	13,588	---	98,817	97,767	73,223	224	30,681	---		---		---
2011-12	13,567	129,189	98,328	97,357	73,000	205	30,668	30,861		28,184		11,165
2012-13	13,515	---	98,454	97,331	73,037	196	30,623	---		---		---
2013-14	13,491	131,890	98,271	97,290	73,223	193	30,256	33,619		30,919		11,110
2014-15	13,601	---	98,176	97,601	73,420	165	30,528	---		---		---
2015-16	13,584	132,853	98,277	97,586	73,546	197	30,828	34,576		31,630		12,669
2016-17	13,598	---	98,158	97,434	73,620	203	30,597	---		---		---
2017-18	13,551	130,930	98,469	97,568	73,686	188	30,160	32,461		29,616		12,371
2018-19	13,452	---	98,755	98,064	74,192	185	30,458	---		---		---
2019-20	13,349	128,961	98,469	97,868	74,302	187	30,407	30,492		27,662		11,815
2020-21	13,335	---	98,577	97,847	74,309	171	30,274	---		---		---
2021-22	13,318	128,966	99,239	98,625	75,069	166	30,793	29,727		27,017		12,137
2022-23	13,318	---	99,388	98,768	75,237	169	30,788	---		---		---
---Not available.
¹Regular districts exclude regional education service agencies and supervisory union administrative centers, state-operated agencies, federally operated agencies, and other types of local education agencies, such as independent charter schools.
²Data for most years prior to 1976-77 are partly estimated. Prior to 1995-96, excludes schools whose highest grade offered was kindergarten.
³Includes schools not classified by grade span, which are not shown separately.
⁴Includes prekindergarten, elementary, middle, secondary, and high schools.
⁵Excludes schools whose lowest grade offered was grade 7 or grade 8. However, includes schools whose only grade offered was grade 7 or grade 8.
⁶Excludes schools whose only grade offered was grade 7 or grade 8.
⁷Excludes schools whose lowest grade offered was grade 7 or grade 8.
⁸Excludes alternative schools, academies, hospitals, virtual schools, prisons, and juvenile detention facilities.
⁹These data cannot be compared directly with the data for years after 1980-81.
NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1870 through 1910; Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, 1919-20 through 1949-50; Statistics of State School Systems, 1951-52 through 1967-68; Statistics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Systems, 1970-71 through 1980-81; Statistics of Public and Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Day Schools, 1968-69; Statistics of Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1970-71; Private Schools in American Education; Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), "Private School Questionnaire," 1987-88 and 1990-91; Private School Universe Survey (PSS), 1989-90 through 2021-22; and Common Core of Data (CCD), "Local Education Agency Universe Survey" and "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey," 1982-83 through 2022-23. (This table was prepared January 2024.)

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