Recent Study

Private School Participants in Programs under the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Private School and Public School Perspectives.

Statistics About Non-Public Education in the United States

Private Schools

Schools and Enrollment

Private School Universe Survey 2009-10

In the fall of 2009, there were an estimated*

• 33,366 private elementary and secondary schools with,
• 4,700,119 students, and
• 437,414 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers.

*These estimates include schools for which kindergarten is the highest grade.

Tuition

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), "Private School Data File," 2007–08

For the 2007-2008 school year, private school full tuition averages were:

• $5,400 for elementary schools;
• $13,500 for secondary schools; and
• $9,200 for combined schools.

Sources

U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Characteristics of Private Schools in the United States: Results from the 2009-2010 Private Universe Survey, First Look

U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), “Private School Data File,” 2007-08

Homeschooling

In the spring of 2007, an estimated 1.5 million students (1,508,000) were homeschooled in the United States. This represents an increase from the estimated 1.1 million students (1,096,000) who were being homeschooled in the spring of 2003. In addition, the estimated percentage of the school-age population that was homeschooled increased from 2.2 percent in 2003 to 2.9 percent in 2007.

Parents give various reasons for the decision to educate their children at home. According to the 2003 and 2007 National Household Education Surveys (NHES), the three reasons selected by parents of more than two-thirds of students were concern about the school environment (88 percent), to provide religious or moral instruction (83 percent), and dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools (73 percent). In the 2007 NHES, parents were also asked which of their selected reasons for homeschooling was the most important. Thirty-six percent of the parents reported that providing religious or moral instruction was the most important reason for their decision to homeschool, followed by 21 percent reporting concern for the school environment and 17 percent reporting dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools as the most important reason for homeschooling.

Helpful Links

Institute for Education Sciences (IES)

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Sources

• U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007

• U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Characteristics of Private Schools in the United States: Results from the 2009-2010 Private School Universe Survey, First Look

• U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), "Private School Data File," 2007–08