A charter flag describes a school’s legal or governance status. A virtual flag describes how instruction is delivered. In our national directory, 8,073 schools are reported as charter and 1,471 as virtual—but only 356 are both.
8.5%
charter among known flags
1.5%
virtual among known flags
356
reported as both
The distinction matters because everyday language often collapses the two. Many charter schools operate in person. Many virtual public schools are operated by traditional districts rather than charter agencies. Neither flag means private school: every record in this analysis comes from the public-school directory.
Always keep “unknown” separate from “no”
Charter status is reported for 95,517 of 98,950 schools (96.5%). Virtual status is reported for 97,119 (98.1%). The denominators above use only schools with a known flag.
If we divided by every school, records with missing flags would effectively become “No.” That would be false precision, especially in state comparisons. The site therefore displays an unreported value as unavailable rather than guessing.
Charter prevalence varies sharply by state
Among jurisdictions with at least 100 schools and at least 100 known charter flags, these have the highest reported shares:
| State or jurisdiction | Charter schools | Known flags | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 124 | 243 | 51.0% |
| Arizona | 542 | 2,405 | 22.5% |
| Florida | 740 | 4,186 | 17.7% |
| Colorado | 257 | 1,884 | 13.6% |
| Nevada | 98 | 728 | 13.5% |
| Rhode Island | 42 | 312 | 13.5% |
| Hawaii | 40 | 298 | 13.4% |
| Utah | 146 | 1,097 | 13.3% |
| California | 1,259 | 10,276 | 12.3% |
| Texas | 1,095 | 9,248 | 11.8% |
This is a descriptive directory count, not a measure of how many students attend charters. It also should not be read as a league table: charter laws, authorizers, grade configurations, and reporting systems differ by state.
Virtual schools follow a different map
The states with the largest reported virtual-school shares are not simply the charter table repeated:
| State | Virtual schools | Known flags | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Dakota | 28 | 510 | 5.5% |
| Arizona | 121 | 2,375 | 5.1% |
| Kansas | 63 | 1,338 | 4.7% |
| Florida | 184 | 4,141 | 4.4% |
| Idaho | 31 | 741 | 4.2% |
| Minnesota | 97 | 2,661 | 3.6% |
| Utah | 33 | 1,083 | 3.0% |
| Tennessee | 51 | 1,870 | 2.7% |
| Alaska | 13 | 479 | 2.7% |
| Colorado | 49 | 1,875 | 2.6% |
A virtual designation can cover different operating models, including schools that are fully virtual and schools categorized under a state’s reporting rules. The directory flag is a starting point. Families still need the current school description to understand synchronous instruction, required in-person events, geographic eligibility, equipment, learning-coach expectations, and support services.
How to compare a charter school fairly
First identify its authorizer and operator, then compare mission and enrollment rules. A neighborhood district school, an open-enrollment charter, and a specialized charter may serve different populations or grade spans even when they share a ZIP code.
- Confirm grades served, application dates, lotteries, preferences, and wait-list rules on the current official site.
- Compare enrollment and staffing with schools at the same level and of similar size.
- Ask whether transportation, meals, special education, athletics, and extracurriculars are provided directly or through partners.
- Check whether the school is part of a multi-school network; an “independent charter district” in federal data can be the agency attached to one or more schools.
How to compare a virtual school fairly
A building-centered checklist is not enough. Ask how much live instruction occurs, what daily attendance means, how often students meet teachers individually, which services require travel, and how the school supports students who need structure or accommodations. Also confirm whether extracurriculars and state testing require in-person attendance.
Enrollment is especially easy to misread. A statewide virtual school may serve students scattered across a large area; its location in the federal directory is an administrative address, not a neighborhood attendance zone.
Analysis notes
Counts use the charter and virtual indicators in the 2024–25 NCES Common Core of Data school file, joined to schools in our 2025–26 preliminary directory snapshot. Each school counts once. State shares use known flags as denominators and require at least 100 schools in the directory plus at least 100 reported flags for the measure shown.
These fields identify reported status, not quality, selectivity, instructional effectiveness, or a family’s eligibility. State policies and school operations can change after the source year.
Sources and methodology
- NCES Common Core of Data — public-school directory and charter/virtual indicators.
- NCES Search for Public Schools — individual federal records.
- US School Ratings methodology — joining and missing-value rules.
