New York State Education Department Bureau of Statistical Services Annual Census and Enrollment Reports of School Districts

Arranged into three subseries: 1. Annual reports from school districts overseen by a supervisory district; 2. Annual reports from independent school districts; 3. Summaries of census and enrollment data.

The Bureau of Statistical Services was created in 1904 along with the New York State Education Department. It was charged with collecting basic statistical data on New York schools, school districts, colleges, and professional education programs, and publishing the data annually. Non-public schools are also required to participate in this reporting. In 1965, the Bureau created the Basic Educational Data System, which centralized the collection, storage, and dissemination of statistical data in a single computer system.

Article XXIV of the Education Law as consolidated in 1910 (Chapter 140) required that all cities and other school districts maintain an updated census of school age residents. The same law allowed the Commissioner of Education to require reports from school district officials as he deemed necessary. The Bureau of Statistical Services is responsible for the receipt and maintenance of these reports.

These annual reports provide detailed statistics on the number of minors residing in and enrolled in school in each school district in the State. Although the format of and some specific information collected on these reports changes slightly during the period, each generally gives statistics on: resident minors to age 21; resident minors attending public schools in home district; resident minors attending private or parochial schools in home district; minors attending school outside home district; minors legally exempted from attendance or receiving approved home instruction; and nonresident minors enrolled in district.

The statistics are compiled by year or age and by sex in all categories through 1950; thereafter sex breakdown is given only for the total number of resident minors in the district. Beginning in 1951 reports include age-grade tables giving the number of students of each age enrolled in each grade, plus the number of mentally retarded, physically handicapped, and otherwise handicapped students by age.

At the beginning of the series is a file of published summaries of census and enrollment data. In the middle of the series are summary tables for each supervisory district containing compilations of each type of data from all school districts within each supervisory district. These summaries, 1946-1955, are arranged chronologically by year, thereunder alphabetically by county, and then numerically by supervisory district number.

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