New York State Education Department Bureau of Statistical Services Abstracts of Annual Financial and Statistical Reports of…

Chronological by school year, then alphabetical by county, then numerical by school commissioner district number (through 1910/1911) or district superintendency number (starting 1911/1912).

Between 1856 and 1912, elected school commissioners in each county outside of New York City supervised all common school districts and all union free school districts in their commissioner districts. The school commissioners prepared abstracts of statistical and financial reports for those districts and sent them to the Department of Public Instruction (up to 1904) or to the State Education Department (starting 1904). Those abstracts are included in this record series. City school districts operated under their own superintendents and were not part of the school commissioner districts.

Starting in 1912, appointed district superintendents of schools, one or more in each county outside of New York City, supervised the common school districts, which offered elementary instruction only; the (so-called) dependent union free school districts, which usually offered both elementary and secondary instruction; and the central school districts, almost all of which offered both elementary and secondary instruction. Central school districts were new districts, mostly created after the mid-1920s, composed of consolidated common school districts and usually one or more union free school districts. The district superintendents of schools prepared abstracts of financial and statistical reports of the school districts that were supervised by them, and sent the abstracts to the State Education Department. Those abstracts are included in this record series. The district superintendents did not supervise and did not submit financial and statistical reports for the (so-called) independent union free school districts containing more than 5000 population (4500 after 1920) (usually located in larger villages or in suburban areas) or from the city school districts. The city school districts and independent union free school districts operated under their own superintendents. Consequently this series does not include abstracts of reports for the larger union free school districts after 1912, and for city school districts at any time period.

These volumes contain statistical and other information abstracted from school district trustees' reports by school commissioners through 1910/1911 and thereafter by the district superintendents of schools. The abstracts of school district trustees' reports generally concern smaller schools, usually located in rural areas of the state, because the legal authority of the school commissioners and the district superintendents of schools was limited to school districts located outside of cities.

Information in the abstracts is given for each school district within a school commissioner's or district superintendent's district, and is summarized by town. The specific data collected and format of the reports changes slightly over time, but each abstract is divided into a Statistical Report of Schools and a Financial Report of Schools. For the years 1904/1905 and 1905/1906 and 1911/1912 through 1915/1916 there are separate summary reports providing statistical and financial data, aggregated by town, for elementary schools operated by common school districts and the elementary grades of "union schools" operated by union free school districts, and also for the "academic departments" (secondary grades) of union schools, some of which were termed "high schools" because they offered a full academic program leading to a Regents' diploma.

The statistical reports give information concerning: school district number; town(s); buildings (number and, on early reports, construction style); property values (buildings, sites, equipment, library); teachers (number employed and contracted for, types of licenses held, sex, number of days paid); pupils (numbers of children living in district and registered in school, aggregate and daily attendance); private schools (numbers of schools and registered pupils); session (number of days open or closed for specified reasons); compulsory attendance law (number of violations by parents or students); district offices (names and addresses of selected officers); and miscellaneous (number of inspections, sanitary facilities, instruction given in subjects like patriotism and humane treatment of animals, Arbor Day observance).

Financial reports give detailed information on bonds, receipts, and payments in numerous categories. Abstracts for 1952 are interfiled with series 13638, School District Annual Financial and Statistical Reports. Legislation of 1894 required school commissioners to make annual reports to the Superintendent of Public Instruction (Commissioner of Education after 1904) of information abstracted from the reports of school district trustees. In 1912 the office of district superintendent replaced that of school commissioner (Laws of 1910, Chapter 607).

A3048Series A3048, Annual Financial and Statistical Reports of Normal Schools

A3049Series A3049, Annual Reports of Vocational Schools

B0555Series B0555, Annual Financial and Statistical Reports of Private and Parochial Schools (Academies)

13638Series 13638, Annual Financial and Statistical Reports of School Districts, and Series A3046 were used to compile the tables in

14196Series 14196, Financial and Statistical Data Tables.

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