Enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools, by school level, type, and charter, magnet, and virtual status: School years 2012-13 through 2022-23

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Table 216.20.Enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools, by school level, type, and charter, magnet, and virtual status: School years 2012-13 through 2022-23
School level, type, and charter, magnet, or virtual status	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		10		11		12
Total, all schools	49,519,559	49,777,410	50,009,771	50,115,178	50,264,883	50,330,241	50,330,883	50,437,821		49,038,443		49,089,640		48,860,517
School type
Regular	48,583,049	48,863,752	49,178,890	49,313,134	49,459,192	49,531,526	49,534,589	49,629,390		48,241,988		48,216,636		48,044,450
Special education	198,626	214,611	186,269	180,155	184,261	185,073	180,523	173,348		154,165		150,280		152,781
Vocational	160,207	148,447	147,550	146,321	146,601	147,516	158,088	152,961		161,495		193,189		193,612
Alternative¹	577,677	550,600	497,062	475,568	474,829	466,126	457,683	482,122		480,795		529,535		469,674

School level and type
Prekindergarten	167,303	178,408	176,494	186,614	190,523	196,914	211,861	217,022	²	168,694		187,555	²	208,086	²
Regular	144,748	151,393	154,408	164,564	166,721	172,789	184,778	188,319		146,381		164,893		182,967
Special education	19,353	24,359	19,685	20,129	21,716	22,969	26,084	27,339		21,436		21,912		24,485
Vocational	6	12	167	0	177	0	0	0		0		0		0
Alternative¹	3,196	2,644	2,234	1,921	1,909	1,156	999	1,364		877		750		634

Elementary	23,971,083	24,131,417	24,223,110	24,154,981	24,051,448	24,077,645	23,898,171	23,808,079		22,442,665		22,545,068		22,596,733
Regular	23,868,105	24,030,001	24,150,353	24,084,883	23,991,773	24,010,516	23,838,158	23,755,547		22,390,855		22,491,833		22,551,647
Special education	36,077	35,031	30,911	29,200	19,347	26,974	21,347	17,463		14,129		12,397		13,149
Vocational	2,161	1,581	1,274	1,365	1,514	1,542	0	0		0		0		0
Alternative¹	64,740	64,804	40,572	39,533	38,814	38,613	38,666	35,069		37,681		40,838		31,937

Middle	9,479,530	9,497,598	9,439,744	9,392,450	9,366,871	9,531,009	9,603,188	9,693,590		9,422,643		9,215,744		9,016,934
Regular	9,454,002	9,476,546	9,421,613	9,372,239	9,348,445	9,513,963	9,588,984	9,683,345		9,415,280		9,201,117		9,007,291
Special education	5,213	4,584	3,878	3,255	2,612	2,715	2,731	689		522		536		759
Vocational	1,567	358	308	364	429	289	148	156		160		156		152
Alternative¹	18,748	16,110	13,945	16,592	15,385	14,042	11,325	9,400		6,681		13,935		8,732

Secondary and high	14,773,659	14,805,127	14,939,874	15,050,043	15,210,764	15,179,513	15,174,601	15,227,541		15,240,146		15,318,119		15,274,019
Regular	14,192,428	14,258,335	14,412,714	14,533,149	14,697,396	14,675,284	14,670,574	14,703,625		14,741,002		14,791,352		14,748,295
Special education	35,410	36,283	30,397	28,772	28,604	27,273	24,554	24,499		23,177		21,775		20,174
Vocational	156,275	146,310	145,617	144,532	144,331	145,566	157,822	152,691		159,776		191,462		191,153
Alternative¹	389,546	364,199	351,146	343,590	340,433	331,390	321,651	346,726		316,191		313,530		314,397

Other, ungraded, and not applicable/not reported	1,127,984	1,164,860	1,230,549	1,331,090	1,445,277	1,345,160	1,443,062	1,491,589		1,764,295		1,823,154		1,764,745
Regular	923,766	947,477	1,039,802	1,158,299	1,254,857	1,158,974	1,252,095	1,298,554		1,548,470		1,567,441		1,554,250
Special education	102,573	114,354	101,398	98,799	111,982	105,142	105,807	103,358		94,901		93,660		94,214
Vocational	198	186	184	60	150	119	118	114		1,559		1,571		2,307
Alternative¹	101,447	102,843	89,165	73,932	78,288	80,925	85,042	89,563		119,365		160,482		113,974

Charter status and level
All charter schools³	2,269,435	2,522,022	2,721,786	2,845,322	3,008,297	3,143,269	3,290,149	3,431,230		3,680,294		3,674,712		3,717,857
Prekindergarten	6,794	5,638	5,315	5,857	5,653	5,449	5,219	5,365		3,421		3,057		3,071
Elementary	980,889	1,095,419	1,196,503	1,235,990	1,289,641	1,376,412	1,443,839	1,512,281		1,563,961		1,568,732		1,584,854
Middle	194,003	219,359	232,530	235,177	243,333	246,751	249,027	256,721		272,808		258,718		241,330
Secondary and high	519,786	571,853	620,217	657,256	690,159	723,070	747,380	771,361		810,186		806,729		804,670
Other, ungraded, and not applicable/not reported	567,963	629,753	667,221	711,042	779,511	791,587	844,684	885,502		1,029,918		1,037,476		1,083,932

Magnet status and level
All magnet schools³	2,478,531	2,556,644	2,609,104	2,604,145	2,536,520	2,665,820	2,672,473	2,694,281		2,207,082	⁴	2,220,219	²	---
Prekindergarten	1,055	1,100	1,520	1,203	785	757	591	1,184		875	⁴	1,278	²	---
Elementary	834,683	851,600	853,557	838,514	810,267	881,389	882,526	886,750		696,181	⁴	719,658	²	---
Middle	506,174	497,684	509,944	505,172	495,047	528,151	552,592	560,470		491,772	⁴	481,276	²	---
Secondary and high	1,115,819	1,182,842	1,218,907	1,220,936	1,186,564	1,227,219	1,207,307	1,215,852		993,982	⁴	988,480	²	---
Other, ungraded, and not applicable/not reported	20,800	23,418	25,176	38,320	43,857	28,304	29,457	30,025		24,272	⁴	29,527	²	---

Virtual status and level
All virtual schools^3,5	---	200,343	229,608	234,148	212,311	278,783	289,614	293,689		590,267	⁴	566,188	²	562,659
Prekindergarten	---	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	⁴	0	²	0
Elementary	---	12,864	16,503	15,972	9,429	13,293	11,208	12,757		71,972	⁴	65,579	²	58,962
Middle	---	1,414	3,780	3,384	5,634	8,143	5,442	7,854		22,777	⁴	22,993	²	14,945
Secondary and high	---	31,392	43,556	47,373	45,829	62,363	65,749	64,444		110,016	⁴	111,703	²	105,676
Other, ungraded, and not applicable/not reported	---	154,673	165,769	167,419	151,419	194,984	207,215	208,634		385,502	⁴	365,913	²	383,076
---Not available.
¹Includes 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.
²Data are missing for California.
³Magnet, charter, and virtual schools are also included under regular, special education, vocational, or alternative schools as appropriate.
⁴Data are missing for California, Illinois, and Utah.
⁵Virtual schools are defined as having instruction during which students and teachers are separated by time and/or location and interact via internet-connected computers or other electronic devices.
NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. For all data years in this table, total enrollment is based on the sum of known race/ethnicity totals. Because the data reflect reports by schools, totals differ from those in tables based on reports by states or school districts.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey," 2012-13 through 2022-23. (This table was prepared December 2023.)

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