NCES Data Show Public School Enrollment Held Steady Overall From Fall 2022 to Fall 2023

December 5, 2024

Grades 9-12 Enrollment Increases Since Fall 2019, While Lower Grades Remain Below Pre-COVID-19 Enrollment Peak

WASHINGTON (December 5, 2024) — Prekindergarten through 12th-grade public school enrollment in the 50 states and the District of Columbia reached 49.5 million students for the fall of 2023, according to new data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical center within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The fall 2023 total enrollment counts show a decrease of 0.2 percent compared to fall 2022 counts and a 2.5 percent decline from the 2019 level.

Changes in enrollment at different grade levels varied since the start of the 2019 pandemic. In the 50 states and the District of Columbia, prekindergarten through grade 8 enrollment was about 33.9 million students in fall 2023, or 4.5 percent below fall 2019 enrollment for these grades. For grades 9 through 12, enrollment increased by about 2 percent over the same period, from 15.2 million to 15.6 million.

“Today’s release illustrates how public school enrollment trends have diverged since fall 2019, with increases in grades 9 through 12 offset by declines in lower grades. The data provide relevant insight into the shifting education landscape,” said NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr. “NCES’s ongoing efforts will enhance our understanding of these patterns and support evidenced-based policymaking to benefit schools, students, and parents.”

The release from NCES’s Common Core of Data (CCD) provides data on public elementary and secondary schools, local education agencies (LEAs), and state education agencies (SEAs) across the United States and outlying areas. The data include public school student enrollment counts available by grade level, race/ethnicity, sex, and eligibility for free and reduced priced lunch. In addition to student data, the CCD provides data on teacher and staff counts.

“This release is part of NCES improvements designed to increase the timeliness of its data releases. Historically, the CCD nonfiscal files required up to 20 months to be released, as seen with the 2016-17 data, which were published in January 2019. However, by using technology to provide real-time feedback to State respondents, NCES has transformed its data review and production workflows,” said Sean Simone, NCES Associate Commissioner for the Administrative Data Division. “This system enables State Education Agencies to resolve data issues before submission and reduces the lengthy post-submission data review process. As a result, NCES now completes processing CCD nonfiscal data within four months of receiving it, providing users with timely, high-quality information to support evidence-based policymaking.” More information regarding these improvements may be found on the NCES website.

Figure 1: Percent Change in Public School Enrollment Between Fall 2019 and Fall 2023

Multicolored figure of the United States depicting the percent change in public school enrollment between Fall 2019 and Fall 2023

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NOTE: Includes imputations for nonreported prekindergarten enrollment in California in 2019 and California and Oregon in 2023.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education,” 1990-91 through 2023-24. Department of Edfense Education Activity (DoDEA) Data Center, Enrollment Data, Fall 2011 through Fall 2023, retrieved November 16, 2023 from https://www.dodea.edu/education/research-accountability-and-evaluation/enrollment-management. See Digest of Education Statistics 2024, table 203.20, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d24/tables/dt24_203.20.asp.

The NCES data show that enrollment changes varied by state. Total enrollment in public schools declined by more than 4 percent in 18 states from fall 2019 to fall 2023, with the largest drops (more than 5 percent) observed for California, Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. At the same time, the District of Columbia and North Dakota saw total enrollment climb by more than 2 percent between those years.

Within outlying areas and jurisdictions, fall 2023 enrollment also remained below pre-pandemic levels. In Puerto Rico, the total fall 2023 public school enrollment was about 241,000, a decrease of 18 percent from fall 2019. A difference between fall 2023 and fall 2019 enrollment was also observed in Department of Defense Education Activity schools (-7 percent), the U.S. Virgin Islands (-6 percent), and Bureau of Indian Education schools (-4 percent).

Key Findings:

Public School Student Enrollment

  • In the United States, between fall 2022 and fall 2023:
    • Total enrollment decreased by 0.2 percent.
    • Prekindergarten through grade 8 enrollment decreased by 0.4 percent.
    • Enrollment in grades 9 through 12 increased by 0.1 percent.
  • Within states:
    • A decline in enrollment of over 1 percent was observed in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
    • The District of Columbia had the largest increase (2 percent).
  • Outlying areas and jurisdictions:
    • Bureau of Indian Education enrollment increased by 0.2 percent.
    • Department of Defense Education Activity enrollment increased by 5.8 percent, and U.S. Virgin Islands by 1.4 percent. Enrollment counts decreased in Puerto Rico by 3.9 percent and in the Northern Marianas by 1.6 percent.

Figure 2: Percent Change in Public School Enrollment Between Fall 2022 and Fall 2023

Multicolored figure of the United States depicting the percent change in public school enrollment between Fall 2022 and Fall 2023

# Rounds to zero

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SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education,” 1990-1991 through 2023-24. Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Data Center, Enrollment Data, Fall 2011 through Fall 2023, retrieved November 16, 2023, from https://www.dodea.edu/education/research-accountability-and-evaluation/enrollment-management. See Digest of Education Statistics 2024, table 203.20, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d24/tables/dt24_203.20.asp.

  • U.S. fall 2023 race/ethnicity enrollment percentage distributions
    • American Indian/Alaska Native - 0.9 percent
    • Asian - 5.6 percent
    • Black - 14.9 percent
    • Hispanic - 29.5 percent
    • Pacific Islander - 0.4 percent
    • White - 43.7 percent
    • Two or more races - 5.1 percent

Numbers of Operational Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Agencies by Type

  • U.S. 2023-24 public school types
    • Regular - 90,461
    • Special education - 1,865
    • Career and technical - 1,575
    • Alternative education - 5,396
  • U.S. 2023-24 charter schools - 8,010
  • U.S. 2023-24 LEA types
    • Regular school districts - 13,303
    • Supervisory unions - 113
    • Service agencies - 1,122
    • Independent charter agencies - 4,212
    • State agencies - 186
    • Federal and other agencies - 250

The data released may be accessed in multiple formats. Along with the universe files, four tabulations summarizing the number and status of schools and LEAs, as well as several CCD indicators by state, are available.

Additionally, data released may also be accessed through NCES’s Elementary/Secondary Information System (ElSi) data tool.

Data on national trends may also be accessed through the Digest of Education.

Technical Note

The CCD is a national statistical program that collects and compiles administrative data from SEAs covering the universe of all public elementary and secondary schools and school districts in the United States.

The School Year 2023-24 CCD universe files are one of the U.S. Department of Education's primary resources on public elementary and secondary education, including data from 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools, Puerto Rico, Northern Marianas, and U.S. Virgin Islands.

Data from Guam and American Samoa were not available as of the submission deadline.

Department of Defense Education Activity provided enrollment data, which they manage on behalf of the Department of Defense. Their enrollment counts include both domestic and overseas schools. Enrollment data are for the reporting period closest to October 1.

All CCD nonfiscal universe data are submitted by SEAs to the Department of Education through EDFacts. EDFacts centralizes performance data supplied by PK-12 SEAs with other data assets within the Department, such as financial grant information, to enable better analysis and use in policy development, planning, and management.

All data in EDFacts are reported by SEAs using defined file specifications. The files specifications provide the detailed definitions and guidance to SEAs for reporting certain data groups. All the EDFacts file specifications are posted on the EDFacts initiative website: https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/file-specifications.html.

For analytical purposes, the member LEAs within the New York City supervisory union are reported as a single LEA. Refer to the EDFacts Directory (FS029) file specifications for additional information on the relationship between the CCD directory variables UNION and LEA_TYPE (https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/file-specifications.html).

Trend analyses include imputations for nonreported prekindergarten enrollment. Data for the United States represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Definitions

Federal-operated agency - A federal agency that is charged, at least in part, with providing elementary or secondary instruction or support services.

Independent charter agency - An agency that contains only charter schools. Other charter schools may be reported through a different LEA type that contains both charter and non-charter schools.

Regular school district - A locally governed agency responsible for providing free public elementary or secondary education; includes independent school districts and those that are a dependent segment of a local government such as a city or county.

Operating school - A school providing services as of the start of the reported school year.

State-operated agency - An agency that is charged, at least in part, with providing elementary and/or secondary instruction or support services. Includes the SEA if this agency operates schools. Examples include elementary/secondary schools operated by the state for the deaf or blind and programs operated by state correctional facilities.

Supervisory union - An education agency that performs administrative services for more than one school district, providing a common superintendent for participating districts.

Service agency - Includes agencies that do not operate schools but instead provide specialized educational services or related services (such as services in IEPs) to other education agencies that those agencies cannot provide themselves. Also includes specialized public school districts that operate one or more schools for a specific education need or purpose.

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The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, is the statistical center of the U.S. Department of Education and the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition and progress of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

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The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the independent and nonpartisan statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Its mission is to provide scientific evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to share this information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public.

CONTACT:
Paul Negron, Manhattan Strategy Group, pnegron@manhattanstrategy.com
Josh De La Rosa, National Center for Education Statistics, ARIS.nces@ed.gov