Changes to the Public Schools File
Details on changes made to the downloadable public schools file and file structure.This page contains a recent history of revisions to the downloadable public schools and districts data files.
2020 Changes
Effective July 2020
Data File Changes
The Public Schools and Districts file has been updated to remove fields related to the second and third administrator. As a result, the following fields have been removed:
- AdmFName2
- AdmLName2
- AdmEmail2
- AdmFName3
- AdmLName3
- AdmEmail3
The remaining administrator contact fields in the Public Schools and Districts file have been renamed as follows:
- AdmFName1 was renamed to AdmFName
- AdmLName1 was renamed to AdmLName
- AdmEmail1 was renamed to AdmEmail
The Public Schools and Districts file, as well as the Public Districts file have been updated to include the following fields:
- FaxNumber
File Structure Changes
The Public Schools and Districts file structure has been updated to remove fields related to the second and third administrator. As a result, the following fields have been removed:
- AdmFName2
- AdmLName2
- AdmEmail2
- AdmFName3
- AdmLName3
- AdmEmail3
The remaining administrator contact fields in the Public Schools and Districts file structure have been renamed as follows:
- AdmFName1 was renamed to AdmFName
- AdmLName1 was renamed to AdmLName
- AdmEmail1 was renamed to AdmEmail
The Public Schools and Districts file structure, as well as the Public Districts file structure have been updated with the inclusion of FaxNumber and Email fields. The two fields have been added after the phone extension field.
2019 Changes
Effective May 2019
Data File Changes
The Public Schools and Districts Data Files have been updated to include the following fields:
- YearRoundYN
- This field indicates if the school is operating on a year round calendar. More information about year-round education can be found by visiting the CDE Year-Round Education Program Guide web page.
- FederalDFCDistrictID
- This field represents the 7-digit National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) school district identification number for direct funded charter schools. Beginning in February 2019, direct funded charter schools were issued their own federal district ID and should no longer use the federal district ID associated with their authorizing agency.
File Structure Changes
The Public Schools and Districts Data Files structure has changed with the inclusion of YearRoundYN and FederalDFCDistrictID fields. The two fields have been added in between Magnet and Latitude fields.
2018 Changes
Effective August 2018
Data File Changes
The Public Schools and Districts Excel file and the Public Districts Excel file was updated in order to comply with new federal accessibility standards, which require information and services be accessible to all people, including those who may be using screen readers to access information. Changes to the Excel data files include:
- General formatting and style changes. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of formatting styles in the header, footer, and body of the table, the use of alternative text, or tooltips, for hyperlinks, the addition of metadata in the file properties, defining table parameters, and font size.
- The population of blank cells with “No Data.”
- The addition of a total row at the end of the files.
File Structure Changes
Removed references to blank cells and blank values and added a note that explains the use of “No Data” in lieu of blanks.
2017 Changes
Effective December 2017
The following changes were made to both the Public Schools and Districts file and the Public Districts file:
- Files are now generated in real-time, rather than posted daily.
- The date format for the “LastUpDate” field was changed to month/day/year, instead of year-month-day to be consistent with other date formats within the Public Schools and Districts file.
- Excel files are posted as XLSX, rather than XLS.
2016 Changes
Effective August 2016
The "Magnet" field was added, which represents whether a school is a magnet school and/or provides a magnet program.
2015 Changes
Effective January 2015
The "Virtual" field was added, which represents the type of virtual instruction offered by the school.
2013 Changes
Effective September 2013
The "Funding Type" field was added, which represents the charter funding type.
Effective July 2013
The "locale code" field (also known as "PopStat") is no longer provided in the public schools database.
The field types for "Latitude" and "Longitude" were changed from "character" to "decimal" fields.
Effective April 2013
The public schools data file is no longer provided in database format (as a ".dbf" file).
Thus, the "DBF" choice has been removed from the Data Files list of available format options.
2012 Changes
Effective January 2012
Changed column delimiter from semicolon to tab for pubschls.txt.