We compiled a uniquely comprehensive dataset of attempted school district secessions from 2000 to February 2026. We categorize each attempt as successful, defeated, inactive, and ongoing as documented by official documents (e.g., legislative, meeting minutes, etc.), news media, and community sources.  

 To develop the dataset, we expand upon EdBuild’s 2000-2019 work.  We conducted an extensive desk search to identify new secessions (2020 and beyond) and older secessions that were not captured in the EdBuild dataset or whose status had changed.  We then used the National Center for Education Statistics’ Common Core of Data accessed through the Urban Institute’s Education Data Portal v. 0.25.0. We filtered the CCD database of school districts to any public-school districts that were marked as newly established, reopened, or with significantly changed boundaries from 2000-2025 and cross-referenced this list against the results of our desk research. Through this process, we identified two additional school districts.  For all secessions prior to 2007, the team relied on Edbuild's dataset as the main source. 

August 2026 update: We updated our dataset and analysis to add more detail about the secession, update statuses, and remove secessions. Detailed explanations of each change can be found in the dataset.

• If you are aware of additional updates, please share them with us at [email protected]
• We will issue at least one additional round of updates (if needed) before this project concludes in mid-2027. As with this update, we will explain in detail the changes we have made.