Fast Facts

Question:
How many schools have access to the Internet?

Response:
In fall 2005, nearly 100 percent of public schools in the United States had access to the Internet, compared with 35 percent in 1994. In 2005, no differences in school Internet access were observed by any school characteristics, which is consistent with data reported previously. There have been virtually no differences in school access to the Internet by school characteristics since 1999.

Public schools have made consistent progress in expanding Internet access in instructional rooms. In 2005, 94 percent of public school instructional rooms had Internet access, compared with 3 percent in 1994.

In 2005, 97 percent of public schools with Internet access used broadband connections to access the Internet. In 2001 and 2000, 85 percent and 80 percent of the schools, respectively, were using broadband connections.

Forty-five percent of public schools with Internet access used wireless connections in 2005, an increase from 32 percent in 2003.

In 2005, the ratio of students to instructional computers with Internet access in public schools was 3.8 to 1, a decrease from the 12.1 to 1 ratio in 1998, when it was first measured. The 2005 ratio of 3.8 to 1 also represents a decrease from 2003, when the ratio of students to instructional computers was 4.4 to 1.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2005 (NCES 2007-020), Selected Findings.

Percentage of public school instructional rooms with Internet access, by school characteristics: Selected years, 1994-2005
School characteristic	1994	1996	1998	2000	2001	2003	2005
All public schools	3	14	51	77	87	93	94
Instructional level¹
Elementary	3	13	51	76	86	93	93
Secondary	4	16	52	79	88	94	95
School size
Less than 300	3	15	54	83	87	93	92
300 to 999	3	13	53	78	87	93	94
1,000 or more	3	16	45	70	86	94	94
Locale
City	4	12	47	66	82	90	88
Urban fringe	4	16	50	78	87	94	96
Town	3	14	55	87	91	97	98
Rural	3	14	57	85	89	94	95
Percent minority enrollment²
Less than 6 percent	4	18	57	85	88	93	96
6 to 20 percent	4	18	59	83	90	95	97
21 to 49 percent	4	12	52	79	89	95	91
50 percent or more	2	5	37	64	81	92	92
Percent of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch³
Less than 35 percent	3	17	57	82	90	95	96
35 to 49 percent	2	12	60	81	89	93	88
50 to 74 percent	4	11	41	77	87	94	96
75 percent or more	2	5	38	60	79	90	91

¹ Data for combined schools are included in the totals and in analyses by other school characteristics but are not shown separately.
² Percent minority enrollment was not available for some schools in the sample. In 1994, this information was missing for 100 schools. In subsequent years, the missing information ranged from 0 to 46 schools. In 2005, this information was missing for 20 schools.
³ Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was not available for some schools in the sample. In the 1994 survey, free and reduced-price lunch data came from the Common Core of Data (CCD) only and were missing for 430 schools (percentages presented in this table are based on cases for which data were available). In subsequent years, free and reduced-price lunch information was obtained on the questionnaire, supplemented, if necessary, with CCD data. Missing data ranged from 0 schools (2003 and 2005) to 10 schools (1999).

NOTE: Percentages are based on all public schools. Information on the number of instructional rooms with Internet access was combined with information on the total number of instructional rooms in the school to calculate the percentage of instructional rooms with Internet access.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2005 (NCES 2007-020).

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