Form 1 · the district for an address

The school district for any U.S. address, and what it spends

The NCES directory lists 99,073 public schools operating in 2024-25; PlainSchools holds the record of the 94,177 that reported students, in 17,648 districts: enrollment, teachers, grades, free meals, and each district's spending and teacher salary spending.

The U.S. Census Bureau geocoder matches the address to its school district; the district record is ours.

Grade 2 is taught in the most schools: 52,342; grade 12 in 25,056

How many of the 94,177 schools that reported students in 2024-25 teach each grade, from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. Most schools teach a band of grades, so a school counts once in every grade it offers.

  1. PK32.7k
  2. K51.9k
  3. 152.3k
  4. 252.3k
  5. 352.3k
  6. 452.1k
  7. 550.8k
  8. 635.5k
  9. 731.0k
  10. 831.2k
  11. 925.1k
  12. 1025.1k
  13. 1125.1k
  14. 1225.1k

Source: NCES Common Core of Data 2024-25, directory file (grades offered); schools that reported students that year.

In this almanac

  1. 01States

    Every state and D.C., each ranked among the states on students per teacher, with the spread of district spending inside it

  2. 02Districts

    17,648 districts with their schools, spending per student within their size band and revenue by source

  3. 03Schools

    94,177 schools that reported students in 2024-25, each placed among its state's schools of the same level

  4. 04Rankings

    The largest and highest-spending districts, the largest schools and chronic absenteeism, each named for its one measure

  5. 05Research

    State comparisons computed from the federal files, each with its method and limits

  6. 06Guides

    What the numbers mean: Title I, school funding, chronic absenteeism, the NCES files

Reading the numbers

What the federal files show

  1. New York spent the most per student on current operations in fiscal year 2022-23 of the 50 states, $29,606; Idaho the least, $10,147. Spending per student by state
  2. 51,398 of the 94,177 schools (54.6%) are elementary schools, 21,727 high and 15,784 middle; the average school has 516 students. How many public schools there are
  3. Teacher salary spending per full-time teacher is on the record of 12,895 districts, compared only within each state, because states book salaries and count teachers differently. Choose a state

Source: NCES F-33 school finance survey, fiscal year 2022-23 (current spending over fall membership); NCES Common Core of Data 2024-25 (school levels and enrollment); CCD district staff file 2022-23 (teachers).

Questions about PlainSchools

  1. Where does PlainSchools get its school data?
    From the U.S. Department of Education: the NCES Common Core of Data 2024-25 (schools, enrollment, teachers, free-lunch counts), the Civil Rights Data Collection 2021-22 (AP courses, counselors, discipline) and the F-33 district finance survey for fiscal year 2022-23. The district finder uses the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder.
  2. How many public schools does PlainSchools cover?
    94,177 public schools that reported students in 2024-25 (the NCES directory lists 99,073 operating; the others reported no enrollment), with 48,582,474 students, in 17,648 districts across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Every one has a page; schools with fewer than 100 students or no teacher count are left out of the sitemaps for search engines because their pages have too little to compare. Older records of schools that closed keep their pages and say so.
  3. Is PlainSchools free?
    Yes. Every school, district and state page, the district finder and the downloads are free, with no account.
  4. Does PlainSchools rate schools?
    No. It shows what the federal files report (enrollment, teachers, programs, spending) with their years. It has no test scores or graduation rates and does not grade schools.