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Public schools in Kansas

477,006 pupils attended 1,341 public schools in Kansas in 2024–25, in 337 school districts. Its districts spent $14,885 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Kansas, 2024–25

477.0 thousand
Pupils
477,006
1.0% of the nation's public school pupils.
1,341
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
13.6
Pupils per teacher
Over the 1,294 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
7
Charter schools
0.5% of pupils.
$14,885
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Kansas over time

Kansas's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 21,070 from its peak in 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Kansas each fall, 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25: all grades, and excluding pre-kindergarten, which is the line the title reads.

Membership is the October 1 count of pupils on a school’s rolls, as the state reported it to NCES.

Every year here reports its pre-kindergarten pupils.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES Common Core of Data — public school membership by state, 2014–15 onwards

The figures behind this chart
Kansas's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 21,070 from its peak in 2014–15 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Kansas each fall, 2014–15 to 2024–25: all grades, and excluding pre-kindergarten, which is the line the title reads.
School yearAll gradesExcluding pre-kindergartenPre-kindergarten
2014–⁠15497,275478,17119,104
2015–⁠16495,884477,11118,773
2016–⁠17494,347475,04519,302
2017–⁠18497,088475,80721,281
2018–⁠19497,733474,96922,764
2019–⁠20497,963474,40423,559
2020–⁠21481,750462,23919,511
2021–⁠22485,424462,87922,545
2022–⁠23487,978463,55524,423
2023–⁠24483,505459,09824,407
2024–⁠25481,626457,10124,525

Kansas's school districts spent $14,885 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $7,708 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Kansas, fiscal years 2005 to 2023: current spending over fall membership, summed over every district. In each year’s dollars, not adjusted for inflation.

Not adjusted for inflation: a dollar in 2005 bought more than a dollar in 2023, and this chart does not say how much more.

Each year is the release NCES has published for it: provisional for most, final for fiscal years 2019 to 2022. A final release revises the provisional one by well under 1% nationally.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) — every fiscal year in the current format

The figures behind this chart
Kansas's school districts spent $14,885 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $7,708 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Kansas, fiscal years 2005 to 2023: current spending over fall membership, summed over every district. In each year’s dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
Fiscal yearPer pupilPupilsRelease
FY2005$7,708468,481Provisional
FY2006$8,370467,279Provisional
FY2007$8,990468,974Provisional
FY2008$9,664467,743Provisional
FY2009$9,945470,445Provisional
FY2010$9,651474,489Provisional
FY2011$9,468484,192Provisional
FY2012$9,738486,108Provisional
FY2013$9,825488,736Provisional
FY2014$9,414496,440Provisional
FY2015$10,033497,275Provisional
FY2016$9,953495,884Provisional
FY2017$10,989494,319Provisional
FY2018$11,680497,068Provisional
FY2019$11,957497,705Final
FY2020$12,732497,955Final
FY2021$13,460481,718Final
FY2022$14,468483,385Final
FY2023$14,885487,965Provisional

Where Kansas’s districts got their money, fiscal year 2023

Revenue of all 339 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

State sources gave Kansas's school districts 59.1% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Kansas's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) — newest fiscal year

The figures behind this chart
State sources gave Kansas's school districts 59.1% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Kansas's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$1.1 billion12.9%
State$5.2 billion59.1%
Local$2.5 billion28.0%

The largest districts in Kansas

By fall membership in 2024–25. Spending per pupil is the same district’s fiscal year 2023 figure from NCES’s finance file, where it reports one.

The 10 largest public school districts in Kansas, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Wichita46,0738114.3$15,549
Olathe28,1955212.9$14,314
Shawnee Mission Pub School26,5134514.3$12,247
Blue Valley22,2523713.3$12,498
Kansas City21,5384315.4$17,611
Topeka Public Schools12,6232712.3$17,228
Lawrence10,4431814.4$12,176
Andover9,4601122.6$7,745
Maize8,0671213.7$14,445
Derby7,4161314.9$11,894

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Kansas

31.8% of Kansas's public school pupils attended rural schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Kansas's operational public schools by the kind of place each school is in, 2024–⁠25: NCES's twelve locales grouped into city, suburb, town and rural.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES Common Core of Data — public schools, newest full school year

The figures behind this chart
31.8% of Kansas's public school pupils attended rural schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Kansas's operational public schools by the kind of place each school is in, 2024–25: NCES's twelve locales grouped into city, suburb, town and rural.
LocaleSchoolsShare of schoolsPupilsShare of pupils
City25519.0%137,75328.9%
Suburb16612.4%90,28218.9%
Town24918.6%97,21120.4%
Rural67150.0%151,76031.8%

Colleges in Kansas that take federal student aid

76 colleges in Kansas are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 34 public, 25 private nonprofit and 17 private for-profit. They enrolled 261,461 students over twelve months and awarded 18,004 bachelor’s degrees.

Kansas elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

    Offenses reported to police by type, the trend, and the reporting coverage.

  • Most dangerous cities in KansasCrime and justice

    What each agency serving 25,000 or more reported, ranked. Agency populations overlap, so these do not add up to the state.

  • Prison populationCrime and justice

    People held under the state’s correctional authority, and the imprisonment rate. A different publisher counting a different thing.

  • Arrests by race, sex and ageCrime and justice

    Arrests as the FBI’s participating agencies reported them, with what the figures can and cannot support at the top.

  • Hate crimeCrime and justice

    Incidents reported to the FBI by bias motivation, as counts — the collection publishes no participation share, so there is no rate to compare states on.

  • Federal obligationsFederal spending

    What federal agencies obligated against a place of performance in the state, per resident and by agency.

  • Registered nonprofitsNonprofits

    How many organizations the IRS lists in the state, what they report as revenue, and which kinds of work they do.

  • Payments to doctorsHealth

    What drug and device companies reported paying doctors with a practice address in the state, and the largest recipients.

  • Farm program paymentsFarm subsidies

    What the Farm Service Agency paid through the state’s county offices, by program and by recipient. The offices that administered the payments, not a count of farms: a recipient addressed elsewhere is counted where they were paid.

  • Paycheck Protection Program loansPPP loans

    The PPP loans SBA guaranteed to businesses operating in the state, by county, with how many carry a forgiveness amount and how many were charged off. Loans, not businesses: a business with two draws is two loans.

  • The Kansas Factbook entryAcross the Factbook

    Every measure the Factbook publishes for this state in one place, each with where it ranks among the others and the record it came from.

The immigration hub has no page for this state: EOIR runs no immigration court here, and CBP publishes by sector and field office, which are its own areas of responsibility rather than a geography. Immigration and the border.

Sources

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), 2024–25; “School District Finance Survey (F-33),” fiscal year 2023; Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Data retrieved