Types of Public Schools and Agencies

States reported 94,112 public elementary/secondary schools in the 2001-02 school year (table A).¹ This was an increase of more than 11 percent over the 84,578 schools reported in the fall of 1991. (Comparisons with 1991 are based on table 89 in Snyder and Hoffman, 2002.). Most of these were regular schools, those that offer a comprehensive curriculum and may provide other programs and services as well. A smaller number of schools focused primarily on special education, vocational/technical education, or alternative programs. Students in these specialized schools were often enrolled in a regular school as well and were reported as part of the membership of either the regular or the special school, but not both. Note that two-thirds of the vocational schools identified in table A, as well as smaller proportions of other types of schools, do not report students in membership. (See Key Terms for more information about school types.)

Among the 91,380 schools that reported students in membership, 98 percent were regular schools (derived from table 1). The second largest category with student membership was that of alternative education schools (1 percent) followed by special education schools and vocational schools (0.4 percent each).

School districts and other types of agencies. Most local education agencies are those that are typically thought of as "school districts." Operated by a local school board, they provide instructional services for students and comprised 85 percent of local agencies in 2001-02 (table 2). A smaller proportion, 8 percent, were supervisory unions or regional education service agencies whose major responsibility is to offer administrative, special program, testing, or other services to school districts. Finally, around 7 percent of the reported agencies were operated directly by a state or federal government agency or were other than any of the preceding categories. The number of regular school districts decreased by 4 percent from the 15,173 reported in 1991 to a total of 14,559 in 2001-02.

Charter school districts. The governance of charter schools varies from state to state. In some cases they are not considered under the administration of the regular public school district within whose boundaries they operate. In these cases, each charter school is reported on the CCD with its own local education agency. These agencies are reported under the category of "other agency." For example, in the District of Columbia the establishment of 33 charter schools explains why the District is shown with 34 total agencies on table 2. Fully 960 of the other agencies shown on table 2 are charter school districts.