Vermont Education Statistics 2026: Schools, Enrollment & Spending
Vermont’s education system combines small public-school systems, supervisory unions and districts, public tuitioning, approved independent schools, and a statewide education finance model. The latest official releases place publicly funded enrollment at 81,750 students in FY2025.
Enrollment, school counts, and spending do not use one common denominator. FY2025 headcounts describe where students are educated, while FY2026 district spending is measured against long-term weighted average daily membership.
Vermont Education Snapshot
Current enrollment and finance figures are paired with the latest published statewide school-structure and staffing measures.
K–12 Public-School Enrollment at Official Benchmark Years
Vermont Agency of Education benchmark counts, 2003–04 through 2022–23
The visual uses four benchmark years published in the state profile rather than an annual series. FY2025 enrollment appears separately because it comes from a newer budget-book reporting series.
Enrollment movement since 2003–04
- K–12 enrollment fell by 19,754 students, or 21.5%, between 2003–04 and 2022–23.
- The 2003–04 to 2012–13 interval accounts for 58.7% of the decline shown across the full period.
- The series continued downward after 2012–13, with smaller absolute losses in each later benchmark interval.
Vermont K–12 Enrollment Benchmark Table
The table reproduces the complete K–12 benchmark series printed in the 2024 Vermont State Education Profile.
| School year | K–12 enrollment | Change from prior benchmark | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003–04 | 91,965 | Baseline | Baseline |
| 2012–13 | 80,368 | −11,597 | −12.6% |
| 2019–20 | 75,852 | −4,516 | −5.6% |
| 2022–23 | 72,211 | −3,641 | −4.8% |
Where Vermont’s Publicly Funded Students Are Enrolled
The FY2025 total combines three settings. It is broader than public K–12 enrollment alone.
| Enrollment setting | FY2020 | FY2025 | Count change | Percent change | FY2025 share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public K–12 schools | 74,621 | 69,789 | −4,832 | −6.5% | 85.4% |
| Publicly funded Pre-K | 8,742 | 7,619 | −1,123 | −12.8% | 9.3% |
| Publicly funded students in Vermont-approved independent schools | 4,289 | 4,342 | +53 | +1.2% | 5.3% |
| Total publicly funded enrollment | 87,652 | 81,750 | −5,902 | −6.7% | 100.0% |
Public enrollment and public funding are different counts
- The FY2025 publicly funded total exceeds public K–12 enrollment by 11,961 students because it also includes publicly funded Pre-K and approved independent-school placements.
- Approved independent-school placements were nearly flat from FY2020 to FY2025 while the two public enrollment categories declined.
School, District, and Tuitioning Structure
Vermont’s organization includes public schools, local districts, supervisory unions or supervisory districts, career centers, independent schools, and home study.
| System component | Count | Reporting period | Coverage note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public schools | 287 | 2022–23 | Schools serving public-school students |
| School districts | 118 | 2022–23 | Districts organized within the SU/SD system |
| Supervisory unions and supervisory districts | 51 | 2022–23 | The state profile reports one additional SU/SD from 2023–24 forward |
| Career and technical education centers | 17 | 2022–23 | Served 5,272 CTE students included in enrollment counts |
| Approved and recognized independent schools | 127 | 2022–23 | Publicly and privately funded enrollment settings |
| Independent-school enrollment | 9,679 | 2022–23 | All reported independent-school students |
| Publicly tuitioned independent-school students | 3,554 | 2022–23 | Students funded by a public district |
| Privately funded independent-school students | 6,125 | 2022–23 | Independent-school students outside the publicly tuitioned count |
| Home study enrollment | 3,505 | 2022–23 | Students taught at home and not attending a public or independent school |
Vermont’s tuitioning structure
- Publicly tuitioned students made up 36.7% of reported independent-school enrollment in 2022–23.
- A resident district may remain financially responsible for a student who is enrolled in another public district, an approved independent school, or another eligible setting.
FY2026 Spending Measures
Vermont’s statutory per-pupil measure divides district education spending by long-term weighted average daily membership, not by a simple student headcount.
| Measure | Value | Unit | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education payment | $1.99 billion | Nominal FY2026 dollars | Appropriated sum of all district education spending |
| Long-term weighted average daily membership | 142,564 | Weighted pupils | Funding denominator that reflects student counts and statutory weighting categories |
| Lowest district spending per weighted pupil | $10,846.46 | Per LTWADM | Low end among districts operating at least one school; includes excess-spending adjustments |
| Highest district spending per weighted pupil | $19,089.92 | Per LTWADM | High end among districts operating at least one school; includes excess-spending adjustments |
| District range spread | $8,243.46 | Calculated difference | Upper bound minus lower bound |
Why the spending range varies
- A higher per-weighted-pupil value can reflect higher district spending, a lower weighted pupil count, or both.
- The upper bound is about 1.76 times the lower bound, but the range does not identify service quality or student outcomes.
Student Groups Connected to Vermont’s Weighted Funding Context
The latest budget book reports rising counts in three student groups while total publicly funded enrollment declined.
| Student group | FY2020 | FY2025 | Count change | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economically disadvantaged students | 32,345 | 36,519 | +4,174 | +12.9% |
| Students with individualized education programs | 13,015 | 13,449 | +434 | +3.3% |
| English learners and multilingual learners | 1,681 | 2,242 | +561 | +33.4% |
Student needs moved differently from total enrollment
- All three reported groups increased between FY2020 and FY2025 even as total publicly funded enrollment fell by 6.7%.
- English learner and multilingual learner counts recorded the largest proportional change at 33.4%.
Students per Staff Member in Vermont and Nearby Benchmarks
Fall 2022; lower values indicate more staff per student
The measure covers total staff, not only classroom teachers, and should not be read as average class size.
Vermont’s staffing intensity
- Vermont reported 4.4 students per staff member, compared with 7.3 nationally.
- Vermont’s ratio was 0.3 below Maine, the next-lowest state in the comparison.
| State or benchmark | Students per staff | National rank |
|---|---|---|
| Vermont | 4.4 | 1 |
| Maine | 4.7 | 2 |
| Connecticut | 5.1 | 3 |
| New Hampshire | 5.4 | 6 |
| New York | 5.9 | 9 |
| Massachusetts | 6.4 | 13 |
| Rhode Island | 6.6 | 16 |
| U.S. average | 7.3 | Not ranked |
What Vermont’s School, Enrollment, and Spending Data Show
The figures describe system scale and reporting structure. They do not establish causes or measure school quality by themselves.
Enrollment is declining across the main public settings
Publicly funded enrollment fell by 6.7% from FY2020 to FY2025. The decline was concentrated in public K–12 and publicly funded Pre-K, while approved independent-school placements were nearly unchanged.
Tuitioned students remain part of public finance
A student may attend an approved independent school or another public system while the resident district remains responsible for tuition. Resident, enrolled, and publicly funded counts therefore answer different questions.
Small-system staffing affects cost interpretation
Vermont’s low student-to-staff ratio indicates a staff-intensive system. The ratio includes teachers, leaders, student services, support services, and other reported staff rather than classroom teachers alone.
Per-pupil finance uses a weighted denominator
FY2026 district spending per pupil is a statutory calculation based on LTWADM. It is not interchangeable with spending divided by FY2025 enrollment headcount.
Student-group counts did not follow the statewide enrollment trend
Economically disadvantaged, IEP, and English learner or multilingual learner counts each rose from FY2020 to FY2025. These groups are relevant to service planning and to statutory weighting categories, but their counts should not be added together because students may appear in more than one group.
Source Years and Definitions
FY2025 enrollment
Vermont Agency of Education, FY27 Budget Book, issued March 2026. Used for FY2020 and FY2025 publicly funded enrollment counts.
Schools and long-term enrollment
Vermont Agency of Education, 2024 Vermont State Education Profile. Used for K–12 benchmark enrollment, public-school organization, independent schools, CTE centers, and home study.
FY2026 spending and staffing
Vermont Joint Fiscal Office, Vermont Education Finance Cost Analysis, April 7, 2026. Used for the education payment, LTWADM, district spending range, and student-to-staff comparison.
Federal comparability reference
National Center for Education Statistics, Vermont Digest State Dashboard and Common Core of Data references. Federal totals can differ from Vermont administrative counts because coverage dates and included grade or program categories vary.
Enrollment and membership definitions
Vermont Agency of Education, Elementary/Secondary School Register. The register supports enrollment, attendance, graduate, dropout, and average daily membership reporting.
Review date
Figures and source availability reviewed July 19, 2026. Dollar values are nominal unless the table states otherwise. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place; calculated dollar spreads are rounded to the nearest cent.
The long-term chart uses the K–12 series because it remains internally consistent across the state profile’s benchmark table. The report’s 2003–04 total public-enrollment text contains conflicting figures, so that total was not used. Independent-school enrollment is self-reported and may follow different reporting requirements from public-school enrollment.
FY2025 enrollment, 2022–23 school-structure data, fall 2022 staffing, and FY2026 finance measures refer to different reporting periods. The FY2026 education payment and per-weighted-pupil range should not be divided by the FY2025 headcount to create an official spending-per-student value. Vermont’s statutory finance calculation uses LTWADM, a weighted membership measure.