Unified School District Boundaries for the 2019-2020 U.S. School Year

The U.S. Census Bureau provides geographic boundaries for unified school districts in effect for the 2019-2020 school year. This extract from the MAF/TIGER Database includes separate shapefiles for elementary, secondary, and unified districts, designed to be combined for national coverage. The data supports the Department of Education's Title I funding allocations by providing child poverty estimates.

Use Cases

• Analyze school district boundaries and local education agency codes to study regional administrative structures.
• Map unified school district polygons to visualize geographic service areas for public education.
• Combine elementary, secondary, and unified district shapefiles to create a complete national coverage map.
• Use school district level and grade range attributes for demographic or funding allocation studies.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative U.S. Census Bureau MAF/TIGER Database, ensuring national consistency.
• Boundaries represent a specific, documented time period (the 2019-2020 school year, in operation as of January 1, 2020).
• Shapefiles are topologically integrated with no overlaps or gaps, allowing for seamless combination.

Limitations

• Data is static for the 2019-2020 period and may not reflect subsequent boundary changes or district consolidations.
• The dataset focuses on administrative boundaries and core attributes, lacking detailed demographic or performance data within districts.
• As a geographic extract, analytical use requires GIS software (e.g., for WMS, ESRI REST, or shapefile formats).

Provenance

Source

U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Extracted from the Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database; boundaries obtained from State officials.

Time Range

2019-2020 school year (boundaries in operation as of January 1, 2020).

Freshness

Data reflects boundaries as of January 1, 2020; the dataset was last updated on the platform in October 2021.

Geography

United States, with state-based files for unified school districts.