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What Are The Largest School Districts in the United States?

  • Writer: Spencer Costanzo
    Spencer Costanzo
  • Dec 16
  • 2 min read

If you’re thinking about where the biggest volume of K–12 substitute teaching work exists, start with one simple proxy: district enrollment. Bigger enrollment usually means more campuses, more staff, more daily absences, and more consistent demand for coverage.


This post focuses on the largest school districts by enrollment. 


The top 25 largest school districts by enrollment


Here are the 25 largest U.S. public school districts by enrollment.


  1. New York City Public Schools (NY) — 859,514

  2. Los Angeles Unified (CA) — 435,958

  3. City of Chicago SD 299 (IL) — 329,836

  4. Miami-Dade (FL) — 328,589

  5. Clark County (NV) — 315,787

  6. Broward (FL) — 256,037

  7. Hillsborough (FL) — 224,149

  8. Orange (FL) — 203,224

  9. Houston ISD (TX) — 194,607

  10. Palm Beach (FL) — 187,943

  11. Gwinnett County (GA) — 179,581

  12. Fairfax County (VA) — 178,479

  13. Hawaii Department of Education (HI) — 173,178 (statewide district)

  14. Wake County (NC) — 160,099

  15. Montgomery County (MD) — 158,231

  16. Dallas ISD (TX) — 143,558

  17. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) — 143,244

  18. Duval (FL) — 128,948

  19. Prince George’s County (MD) — 128,770

  20. Philadelphia City (PA) — 118,053

  21. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (TX) — 117,217

  22. Baltimore County (MD) — 111,136

  23. Cobb County (GA) — 106,970

  24. Shelby County (TN) — 105,596

  25. Polk (FL) — 105,422 



A quick way to “see” the map of big-district America


Visualize the list like a heat map:


  • Florida dominates the top tier with multiple countywide systems (Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Duval, Polk). 

  • Big-city systems still anchor the #1–#3 spots (NYC, LA, Chicago). 

  • A lot of the “largest” districts are suburban-county megasystems, not just urban cores (Fairfax, Gwinnett, Wake, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Cobb). 


What is the only U.S. state with just one school district?

  • One outlier is Hawaii, because the whole state runs as a single public school district. 



What this means for substitute teachers


Think of district size like an “addressable surface area” for jobs:


  • More buildings = more daily variance, so there are more last-minute gaps to fill.

  • More staff = more predictable absence volume (even if the absence rate is modest, it compounds over huge headcount).

  • More HR layers, which often means more onboarding requirements, but also more consistent pipelines once you’re in.


If you’re deciding where to focus, districts in the top 25 are the places where see-through patterns tend to emerge: lots of day-to-day work, recurring schools, and a steady need for reliable coverage.


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If you're looking for substitute teacher jobs near you, simply apply at substituteteacher.com!


Large school district building from above, drone, cartoon

 
 
 

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