In March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom began tracking permanent private school closures nationwide, especially closures explicitly connected to the pandemic’s economic effects. Such closures appear to have ceased, but in the process of maintaining that tracker we discovered that no one tracks openings, closings, or enrollment data for all private schools on a continual basis. Many organizations for specific subsets of schools – independent, Roman Catholic, and more – track their membership, but not private schooling broadly. The federal government attempts to track all private schools, but not on a continually updated basis. This tracker is intended to fill the gaps.
For roughly one academic year – from August 1 of one year to July 31 of the next – the tracker reports summary information on private schools that have announced that they will close or open. It also supplies demographic, tuition, and other data for closing schools, and as much data as is available for schools that will be opening. There are also links at the bottom of the page to view full opening and closing data extending to the start of our collection, and summary information from our annual private school enrollment survey.
