Rhode Island Education Statistics 2026: Schools, Enrollment & Spending
Rhode Island reported 135,978 public pre-K–13 students, 313 operating schools, and 67 operating districts or local education agencies in school year 2024–25. The statewide pupil/teacher ratio was 12.9 based on 10,557 full-time-equivalent teachers.
The 2026 edition aligns each indicator with its official reporting period. School and staffing counts use 2024–25 data, the enrollment series runs through fall 2024, school-type detail uses 2023–24, charter enrollment uses selected years through 2022–23, and spending uses fiscal year 2024.
Rhode Island School System Snapshot
The latest source year differs by indicator. Each card retains the reporting period used by the official source.
Enrollment Movement Since 2013
Fall student membership remained close to 142,000–144,000 through 2019 before moving lower during the next five reporting years.
Rhode Island Public School Enrollment, Fall 2013–Fall 2024
Public elementary-secondary student membership reported by NCES
Fall 2013 through fall 2023 comes from the NCES Digest enrollment series. Fall 2024 comes from the final 2024–25 Common Core of Data state summary.
Enrollment turned downward after 2019
- The highest enrollment in the displayed period was 143,557 students in fall 2019.
- Enrollment fell by 7,579 students between fall 2019 and fall 2024, a decline of about 5.3%.
- The fall 2024 count was only 176 students below fall 2023, making the latest annual decline smaller than those recorded from 2020 through 2023.
Rhode Island Public School Enrollment by Fall Year
The table provides the complete annual series used in the enrollment chart, including numeric annual changes and change from the 2013 baseline.
| Fall year | Enrollment | Annual change | Change from 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 142,008 | Baseline | 0 |
| 2014 | 141,959 | −49 | −49 |
| 2015 | 142,014 | +55 | +6 |
| 2016 | 142,150 | +136 | +142 |
| 2017 | 142,949 | +799 | +941 |
| 2018 | 143,436 | +487 | +1,428 |
| 2019 | 143,557 | +121 | +1,549 |
| 2020 | 139,184 | −4,373 | −2,824 |
| 2021 | 138,566 | −618 | −3,442 |
| 2022 | 137,449 | −1,117 | −4,559 |
| 2023 | 136,154 | −1,295 | −5,854 |
| 2024 | 135,978 | −176 | −6,030 |
Long-run and recent movement differ
- Enrollment in fall 2024 was 4.2% below fall 2013.
- The state was above its 2013 enrollment level as recently as 2019, so most of the net decline occurred during the final five years of the series.
- The largest one-year movement was the loss of 4,373 students between fall 2019 and fall 2020.
School Structure, Charter Enrollment and Spending Context
The supporting modules address separate questions: how schools are classified, how the charter sector changed, and how Rhode Island’s operational spending compares with broader benchmarks.
Current Spending per Pupil in FY2024
Rhode Island compared with the nationwide average and Northeast weighted average
Current spending covers the operational cost of educating pre-K–12 students. It excludes debt service, capital outlay, and non-pre-K–12 programs.
Rhode Island sits between the two spending benchmarks
- Rhode Island was $4,491 per pupil above the nationwide average, a difference of about 25.5%.
- The state was $4,628 below the Northeast weighted average, a difference of about 17.3%.
- The values are nominal and are not adjusted for regional prices or inflation.
Operating Schools by NCES Type, 2023–24
School type is reported for the 312 operating schools counted in 2023–24. The newer all-type total rose to 313 in 2024–25.
| School category | Schools | Share of total | Counting treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| All operating schools | 312 | 100.0% | State total |
| Regular | 298 | 95.5% | Exclusive school type |
| Special education | 1 | 0.3% | Exclusive school type |
| Vocational | 10 | 3.2% | Exclusive school type |
| Alternative | 3 | 1.0% | Exclusive school type |
| Charter | 41 | 13.1% | Overlapping designation |
School type and charter status use different counting rules
- Regular, special education, vocational, and alternative schools sum to the statewide total of 312 operating schools.
- Charter is an overlapping designation. The 41 charter schools must not be added to the four exclusive school-type categories.
Charter School Count and Enrollment Growth
Selected NCES reporting years from 2012–13 through 2022–23
The chart uses selected NCES years rather than a continuous annual series. School count and student enrollment use separate vertical scales.
Charter enrollment grew slightly faster than the school count
- Charter enrollment increased by 6,964 students between 2012–13 and 2022–23, a rise of about 135.7%.
- The number of charter schools increased from 18 to 41 over the same selected-year comparison, a rise of about 127.8%.
Charter Enrollment and Public-Sector Share
Counts and percentages are retained together so that sector growth can be evaluated without treating school count and enrollment as interchangeable measures.
| School year | Charter schools | Charter enrollment | Share of public schools | Share of public enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–13 | 18 | 5,131 | 5.9% | 3.6% |
| 2017–18 | 31 | 8,859 | 9.8% | 6.3% |
| 2021–22 | 40 | 11,357 | 12.7% | 8.3% |
| 2022–23 | 41 | 12,095 | 13.0% | 8.9% |
Charter share expanded across both measures
- Charter schools increased from 5.9% to 13.0% of Rhode Island public schools across the selected years.
- Charter students increased from 3.6% to 8.9% of total public enrollment.
- The school share remained above the enrollment share, indicating a lower average enrollment per charter school than across the public system as a whole.
What the Rhode Island Data Shows
The indicators describe system scale, organizational structure and finance. They do not measure instructional quality or establish causes for enrollment changes.
Operating district count is broader than municipal districts
The NCES count of 67 operating districts or LEAs includes local systems and other operating public education agencies. It should not be interpreted as a count of Rhode Island municipalities.
School totals depend on the selected definition
Rhode Island had 313 operating public schools in 2024–25. The 298-school figure refers only to regular operational schools in the earlier 2023–24 school-type classification.
Statewide enrollment is shaped by different LEA types
Municipal and regional districts, charter LEAs, and other public agencies contribute to the statewide total. Growth in one sector can occur while the statewide count continues to decline.
Per-pupil spending is not a total-budget measure
The Census value divides qualifying current operational spending by the survey’s pupil count. System size, capital projects, debt payments and non-pre-K–12 programs are not represented by the $22,110 measure.
District-level spending has a wider spread
RIDE’s FY2024 fiscal accountability report places district per-pupil expenditures between $16,887 and $47,239. District setting, tuition treatment, student services and accounting adjustments affect that range.
Publication year is not a shared data year
The 2026 title marks the update edition. Enrollment, school, staffing, charter and finance indicators retain their actual school year or fiscal year and are not relabeled as 2026 observations.
Data Sources and Measurement
Current schools, districts, enrollment and teachers
NCES Common Core of Data, 2024–25 Summary Table 2. The final Version 1a table reports operating schools, operating districts, student membership, teacher FTE and pupil/teacher ratios.
Historical enrollment
NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 203.20. Rhode Island fall enrollment values through 2023 come from the CCD State Nonfiscal Survey.
School-type classification
NCES Common Core of Data, 2023–24 Summary Table 3. The table separates regular, special education, vocational and alternative school types and reports charter status separately.
Charter schools and enrollment
NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 216.90. Selected-year charter counts, enrollment totals and public-sector shares cover 2012–13 through 2022–23.
FY2024 spending
U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Current spending covers operational pre-K–12 costs and excludes debt service, capital outlay and non-pre-K–12 programs.
Rhode Island enrollment releases
Rhode Island Department of Education Data Center. RIDE lists October 1 enrollment files for 2025–26 and multiyear LEA and school headcount files covering 2010–11 through 2025–26.
District finance range
RIDE FY2024 Fiscal Accountability Report. The report supplies the statewide range for district-level per-pupil expenditures.
Enrollment represents student membership associated with the fall reporting period; RIDE defines its annual public enrollment measure using October 1 counts. The fall 2024 value is reported as 2024–25 student membership. Teacher counts are full-time equivalents and include pre-kindergarten through grade 13 under the NCES table definition. Charter percentages use total public school and known race/ethnicity enrollment denominators specified by NCES. Dollar values are shown to the nearest dollar, student and school counts are whole numbers, and displayed percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
School-year enrollment, school counts, selected-year charter data and fiscal-year spending are displayed together but do not share one reporting period. FY2024 current spending is nominal and is not adjusted for inflation or regional prices. RIDE district expenditure figures use state reporting rules and should not be substituted directly for the Census statewide current-spending measure. The comparisons describe measured differences and do not establish a causal relationship between spending, enrollment or school structure.