About Rural Schools

• The Federal National Center for ED Stats and Census Bureau subdivided rural schools into three categories:
  • Fringe: rural territory that is less than or equal to 5 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is less than or equal to 2.5 miles from an urban cluster
  • Distant: rural territory that is more than 5 miles but less than or equal to 25 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is more than 2.5 miles but less than or equal to 10 miles from an urban cluster
  • Remote: rural territory that is more than 25 miles from an urbanized area and is also more than 10 miles from an urban cluster

About New York State's Rural Schools

• New York’s rural school districts educate about 360,000 students.
• Of 697 school districts in NYS in 2006, 299 are in rural areas and another 65 are in towns located in distant or remote locations.
• 7.5% of New York’s rural school students are minorities.
• 28.7% of rural students qualify for free or reduced price lunch.
• Since the year 2000, New York has lost 200,000 citizens every due to out-migration from NYS.
• Rural schools face a unique set of issues and challenges, such as consolidation, improving academic and extracurricular programs while keeping tax levies in check, offering universal Pre-K, and enrollment and demographic changes. To see how our center is addressing these issues, visit our Knowledge section.
• On average, a high-need rural school district spends a minimum of $12,098 and a maximum of $28,470 per pupil.

Map of the United States' School Districts by the Federal NCES Locale Codes