Public Schools and Districts Data Files

Data Files

For users' convenience, the public schools and districts data files are posted in Excel and tab delimited text formats.

The data files below are dynamically driven and reflect real-time data. The Public Schools and Districts Excel (XLSX) file may take 20 or more seconds to download, so please be patient.

• Public Schools and Districts Data Files
  Contains all active, pending, closed, and merged public schools and districts.
  • Public Schools and Districts(XLSX; 4MB)
  • Public Schools and Districts(TXT; 7MB)
    
• Public Districts Data Files
  Contains all active and pending districts and county offices of education.
  
  • Public Districts(XLSX)
  • Public Districts(TXT)

For details on what information are contained in each file, as well as descriptions of column headings and code set values used within these files, please refer to the corresponding file structure below.

For details on modifications made to these files and to the file structures, refer to the Changes to the Public Schools File web page.

File Structure

• File Structure: Public Schools and Districts(Revised 19-Sep-2024)
  Descriptions of the elements in the downloadable public schools and districts files.
• File Structure: Public Districts(Revised 19-Sep-2024)
  Descriptions of the elements in the downloadable public districts files.

Data File Usage Tips

• Schools and Districts Data Filtering Instructions(Revised 28-Mar-2016)

Data Disclaimer

The California School Directory and related public school and district data files (collectively referred to as the “Directory”), contain information about California schools, districts, and school/district administrators that is voluntarily self-reported by local education agencies (LEAs) to the California Department of Education (CDE) as a public convenience. Because the information is voluntarily self-reported, the Directory does not contain information for every LEA and the information that is in the Directory may be outdated or have errors, omissions, typos and other inaccuracies. Therefore, information, or the absence of information, in the Directory should not be relied upon for any purpose and should be used only to contact the LEA. The CDE makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, with respect to Directory information.

Additional Data

Below are links to additional data that were previously included in the Public Schools Database. Because these data are not updated as regularly as County-District-School (CDS) data are updated, the CDE no longer includes these data in the Public Schools Database.

Locale Codes

Locale codes may be obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) Geographic Data via the School Locations and Geoassignments web page. To learn more about locale codes, visit the NCES EDGE Locale Boundaries web page.

Legislative Districts

Legislative District Lookup for California Schools
This page includes an interactive mapping and reporting tool to look up state and federal legislative areas assigned to California public schools..

Note that the California legislative district boundaries are redrawn every ten years. Congressional district maps are available from the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.

CDS Listserv

Would you like to stay up-to-date on changes being made to the CDS data, Public Schools Database, or California School Directory? Join the CDS Users listserv today!

• To subscribe to the CDS Users listserv:
  Send a "blank" email message to join-cds-users@mlist.cde.ca.gov.
• To unsubscribe from the CDS Users listserv:
  Send a "blank" email message to unsubscribe-cds-users@mlist.cde.ca.gov.