The Census Bureau obtains the boundaries, names, local education agency codes, grade ranges, and school district levels for school districts from state education officials via the School District Review Program (SDRP).

The SDRP is a U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sponsored program conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is of vital importance for the state's allocation of federal funding under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, Public Law 114-95.

The SDRP includes Type 1, 2, and 3 school districts as defined by the NCES. Type 1 is a local school district that is not a component of a supervisory union, Type 2 is a local school district component of a supervisory union sharing a superintendent and administrative services with other local school districts, and Type 3 is an education agency that performs administrative services for more than one school district, providing a common superintendent for participating districts.  Currently, the Census Bureau maintains Type 3 districts for Vermont.

The Census Bureau creates special tabulations of census data by school district geography. These tabulations provide children’s demographic characteristics of the nation's public school systems. Information is distributed through the NCES.

The SDRP consists of two phases – the Annotation Phase and the Verification Phase. In the Annotation Phase, the Census Bureau provides state officials with materials containing the most current school district boundaries and information for their state. The data are reviewed and changes in the school district boundaries or information are reported to the Census Bureau. In the Verification Phase, state officials verify that the Census Bureau accurately and completely updated the Master Address File (MAF)/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) System with changes submitted during the Annotation Phase.

The SDRP is conducted annually by the Census Bureau. Visit the SDRP Schedule webpage for a detailed program schedule.

The updated school district boundary information submitted through this program are used by the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program in forming the Census Bureau's estimates of the number of children aged 5 through 17 in families in poverty for each school district. These estimates are the basis of the Title I allocation for school districts in each state.

School district boundaries were originally collected and entered into the Census Bureau’s system in the early 1990s as part of the Census Mapping Project.  This project was a collaboration between the Department of Education, the Census Bureau, and the states to collect school district boundary and code data to identify children at risk. The first SDRP was conducted in 1995 when NCES and the Census Bureau began reaching out to state departments of education for regular review and update of boundaries and attributes.

Each state and the District of Columbia designate a mapping coordinator to be the Census Bureau’s primary liaison for the SDRP. The state mapping coordinator collects updates from local school districts, state education officials, county planners, and state data centers, and ensures that submissions are completed within the SDRP’s timeframe.

If you have questions about the school districts in your state, contact your state mapping coordinator.