Largest 100 U.S. School Districts

Largest 100 U.S. School Districts

Updates ... see also:
... interactive school district ranking table at http://proximityone.com/sd_commute.htm.
(sort on total population) updated 2/4/09.
... School District Current Population and Poverty ranking table (12/15/08)
... interactive ranking tables (in general) at http://proximityone.com/rankingtables.htm.

The largest 25 school district based on 2004-05 enrollment are listed in the following graphic:

The largest 100 U.S. school districts appear in the following map highlighted in red. Based on reported enrollment for the 2001-2002 school year, these districts comprised 10,609,303 students of the total K-12 public school enrollment of 46,983,755, or 22.58 percent of the total. In the 2001-2002 school year there were 14,563 school districts. A table showing the school district names, rank, and enrollment by district follows the map. See notes below table about limitations of conclusions that can be drawn about growth and decline.

Rank	School District Name	State	1989-1990 Students	1999-2000 Students	2001-2002 Students	Pct Change 1989-90 - 2001-02
1	New York City Public Schools	NY	930,440	1,075,710	1,049,831	12.83
2	Los Angeles Unified (1)	CA	609,746	710,007	735,058	20.55
3	City of Chicago School District 299	IL	408,442	431,750	437,418	7.09
4	Dade County School District	FL	279,420	360,136	375,836	34.51
5	Broward County School District	FL	148,803	241,094	262,055	76.11
6	Clark County School District	NV	111,460	217,526	245,659	120.40
7	Houston Independent School District	TX	185,566	209,716	210,950	13.68
8	Philadelphia City School District	PA	189,451	205,199	197,083	4.03
9	Hawaii Department Of Education	HI	159,285	185,860	184,546	15.86
10	Hillsborough County School District	FL	119,810	159,517	169,789	41.72
11	Detroit City School District	MI	175,436	167,124	166,675	-4.99
12	Dallas Independent School District	TX	125,897	160,477	163,562	29.92
13	Fairfax County Public Schools	VA	126,790	152,952	160,584	26.65
14	Palm Beach County School District	FL	98,705	149,665	160,223	62.33
15	Orange County School District	FL	96,244	144,231	157,433	63.58
16	San Diego City Unified	CA	119,314	140,743	141,599	18.68
17	Montgomery County Public Schools	MD	100,261	130,720	136,895	36.54
18	Prince George s County Public Schools	MD	106,974	131,059	135,039	26.24
19	Duval County School District	FL	106,593	126,362	127,392	19.51
20	Gwinnett County School District	GA	62,196	104,552	116,339	87.05
21	Memphis City School District (2)	TN	104,410	112,819	115,992	11.09
22	Pinellas County School District	FL	91,393	111,793	114,583	25.37
23	Baltimore County Public Schools	MD	84,133	106,465	107,212	27.43
24	Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools	NC	75,903	100,553	106,312	40.06
25	Wake County Schools	NC	62,474	95,248	101,756	62.88
26	Cobb County School District	GA	66,668	93,657	98,338	47.50
27	Baltimore City Public School System	MD	107,782	103,000	97,817	-9.25
28	Milwaukee	WI	92,061	99,729	97,762	6.19
29	De Kalb County School District	GA	72,865	95,283	97,501	33.81
30	Long Beach Unified	CA	68,292	91,465	96,488	41.29
31	Jefferson County School District	KY	91,353	97,053	93,516	2.37
32	Jefferson County R-1	CO	75,164	88,579	88,460	17.69
33	Albuquerque Public Schools (3)	NM	86,653	85,381	87,201	0.63
34	Polk County School District	FL	63,932	78,685	81,207	27.02
35	Fresno Unified	CA	67,492	78,766	81,058	20.10
36	Fort Worth Independent School District	TX	66,535	78,654	80,597	21.13
37	Austin Independent School District	TX	61,666	77,723	77,684	25.98
38	Virginia Beach City Public Schools	VA	68,348	77,363	75,970	11.15
39	Anne Arundel County Public Schools	MD	64,104	74,663	75,081	17.12
40	Mesa Unified School District	AZ	61,636	71,894	74,808	21.37
41	Jordan School District	UT	63,605	73,111	73,494	15.55
42	Orleans Parish School Board	LA	84,428	80,526	73,185	-13.32
43	Denver County 1	CO	58,299	69,693	72,361	24.12
44	Cleveland Municipal School District	OH	69,812	76,559	72,199	3.42
45	Granite School District (4)	UT	77,515	72,170	72,082	-7.01
46	Brevard County School District	FL	53,615	69,661	71,781	33.88
47	Fulton County School District	GA	40,280	67,025	69,841	73.39
48	District of Columbia Public Schools	DC	81,301	70,762	68,449	-15.81
49	Nashville-Davidson County School District	TN	68,473	70,176	67,689	-1.14
50	Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District	TX	37,224	60,370	67,562	81.50
51	Northside Independent School District	TX	49,539	62,536	66,000	33.23
52	Columbus City School District	OH	64,051	65,490	64,833	1.22
53	Guilford County Schools	NC	23,981	62,486	64,546	169.15
54	Mobile County School District	AL	67,620	65,067	63,846	-5.58
55	El Paso Independent School District	TX	61,729	62,306	62,844	1.81
56	Seminole County School District	FL	46,499	59,326	62,786	35.03
57	Volusia County School District	FL	45,775	60,688	62,599	36.75
58	Boston	MA	59,597	62,950	62,141	4.27
59	Tucson Unified District	AZ	56,115	62,548	62,104	10.67
60	Santa Ana Unified	CA	42,785	58,043	61,909	44.70
61	Greenville County School District	SC	50,849	59,176	61,268	20.49
62	Lee County School District	FL	40,569	56,109	60,718	49.67
63	Arlington Independent School District	TX	42,651	56,773	60,222	41.20
64	Davis School District	UT	53,425	59,486	59,366	11.12
65	San Francisco Unified	CA	61,935	60,896	58,566	-5.44
66	Washoe County School District	NV	36,662	54,508	58,532	59.65
67	Prince William County Public Schools	VA	40,991	52,551	58,017	41.54
68	San Antonio Independent School District	TX	58,720	57,565	57,462	-2.14
69	Atlanta City School District	GA	61,373	59,429	56,586	-7.80
70	Fort Bend Independent School District	TX	33,165	52,704	56,186	69.41
71	San Bernardino City Unified	CA	39,033	50,340	54,166	38.77
72	Oakland Unified	CA	50,741	55,051	53,545	5.53
73	Sacramento City Unified	CA	48,061	51,898	53,418	11.15
74	Aldine Independent School District	TX	38,245	50,890	53,332	39.45
75	North East Independent School District	TX	40,644	49,197	53,218	30.94
76	Portland School District 1j	OR	53,116	53,587	52,908	-0.39
77	Chesterfield County Public Schools	VA	42,864	50,847	52,726	23.01
78	Pasco County School District	FL	32,164	47,691	52,675	63.77
79	Garland Independent School District	TX	36,029	49,036	52,391	45.41
80	East Baton Rouge Parish School Board	LA	60,279	55,652	52,350	-13.15
81	Knox County School District	TN	49,926	52,840	51,866	3.89
82	Cumberland County Schools	NC	44,327	51,300	51,434	16.03
83	San Juan Unified	CA	46,640	48,052	51,383	10.17
84	Jefferson Parish School Board	LA	57,663	51,835	50,766	-11.96
85	Elk Grove Unified	CA	24,390	45,094	49,970	104.88
86	Garden Grove Unified	CA	36,725	48,031	49,809	35.63
87	Anchorage School District	AK	40,924	49,382	49,767	21.61
88	Plano Independent School District	TX	29,209	45,133	49,091	68.07
89	Wichita	KS	47,251	47,778	48,852	3.39
90	Alpine School District	UT	38,246	45,842	48,296	26.28
91	Clayton County School District	GA	33,641	45,266	48,232	43.37
92	Minneapolis	MN	40,831	48,688	48,155	17.94
93	Seattle	WA	40,917	47,989	47,449	15.96
94	Ysleta Independent School District	TX	49,675	46,950	46,811	-5.77
95	Capistrano Unified	CA	24,846	43,648	46,756	88.18
96	Howard County Public Schools	MD	28,874	43,473	46,257	60.20
97	Omaha Public Schools	NE	41,251	45,039	45,782	10.98
98	Forsyth County Schools	NC	37,842	43,687	45,707	20.78
99	Caddo Parish School Board	LA	52,309	46,222	44,859	-14.24
100	Buffalo City School District	NY	46,694	46,370	44,849	-3.95

Most of these districts did not change in territory size at all or in small ways between 1989-1990 and 1999-2000. Exceptions include:
1 -- Los Angeles Unified -- annexed small area in northeast
2 -- Memphis City School District -- annexed area to east and southeast
3 -- Albuquerque Public Schools -- reduced territory in north
4 -- Granite School District -- annexed area to north and released area to south

Many districts on this list are adjacent to other very large districts of a set of medium size districts. The growth or decline in the number of students in any one district can be misleading about the change in the regional K-12 enrollments. For example, San Antonio (68) school district had a declining enrollment over the 12 year period. However, Northeast (51) and North Side (75) districts are contiguous to San Antonio, are also on this list, and grew rather substantially.

Selected Texas Metro Areas

Red areas are school districts on the above largest 100 list. Blue boundaries are school districts not on the above list in counties that do contain one or more largest 100 district(s).

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