Detroit education statistics show how the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) changed across fiscal years 2017 through 2024. The district reported enrollment, spending, teaching staff, pupil-teacher ratios, and attendance for each year, while a separate 2025 release reported the latest on-time graduation result for the Class of 2025. Together, these measures describe district scale, resources, participation, and completion, but each figure belongs to its stated fiscal year or graduating class.
Table of contents
- Enrollment and district scale
- Operating expenditures and total expenses
- Spending per pupil
- Teaching staff and pupil-teacher ratios
- Average daily attendance
- Graduation rates
Enrollment and district scale
DPSCD reported 45,237 students in fiscal year 2017. Reported enrollment was 50,875 students in fiscal year 2018 and 50,176 in fiscal year 2019. The district then reported 50,895 students in fiscal year 2020, followed by 49,743 in fiscal year 2021.
The later figures were 47,524 students in fiscal year 2022, 48,172 in fiscal year 2023, and 48,159 in fiscal year 2024. These figures describe DPSCD enrollment in the corresponding fiscal-year reporting periods; they are not a current estimate for every Detroit student and do not represent enrollment across every public or private school in the city.
| Fiscal year | DPSCD enrollment | Teaching staff | Pupil-teacher ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 45,237 | 2,494 | 18.1 |
| 2018 | 50,875 | 2,700 | 18.8 |
| 2019 | 50,176 | 2,835 | 17.7 |
| 2020 | 50,895 | 3,098 | 16.4 |
| 2021 | 49,743 | 2,980 | 16.7 |
| 2022 | 47,524 | 2,994 | 15.9 |
| 2023 | 48,172 | Not reported in the supplied district figure | Not reported in the supplied district figure |
| 2024 | 48,159 | 2,888 | 16.7 |
The enrollment series places the district at more than 50,000 reported students in fiscal years 2018, 2019, and 2020. The fiscal-year 2024 figure was 48,159 students. Because the supplied DPSCD figures use fiscal years, comparisons should retain those dates rather than treating them as single-day counts or as a calendar-year census.
Source for the fiscal-year enrollment figures and the table: DPSCD ACFR 0624 FS Final.
Operating expenditures and total expenses
DPSCD reported operating expenditures of $624,287,156 in fiscal year 2017. Operating expenditures were $665,187,810 in fiscal year 2018 and $750,069,855 in fiscal year 2019. The fiscal-year 2020 figure was $820,313,854, followed by $847,547,618 in fiscal year 2021.
The district reported operating expenditures of $1,058,402,654 in fiscal year 2022, $1,079,230,235 in fiscal year 2023, and $1,067,333,554 in fiscal year 2024. The fiscal-year 2023 supplied figure includes operating expenditures, but the supplied record does not include the corresponding 2023 total expenses, expenses cost per pupil, teaching staff, or pupil-teacher ratio.
Total expenses were reported separately from operating expenditures. DPSCD reported total expenses of $628,578,714 in fiscal year 2017, $669,066,167 in fiscal year 2018, $767,200,679 in fiscal year 2019, and $834,963,981 in fiscal year 2020. The reported total was $872,914,142 in fiscal year 2021, $1,077,962,617 in fiscal year 2022, and $1,124,595,934 in fiscal year 2024.
| Fiscal year | Operating expenditures | Total expenses |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $624,287,156 | $628,578,714 |
| 2018 | $665,187,810 | $669,066,167 |
| 2019 | $750,069,855 | $767,200,679 |
| 2020 | $820,313,854 | $834,963,981 |
| 2021 | $847,547,618 | $872,914,142 |
| 2022 | $1,058,402,654 | $1,077,962,617 |
| 2024 | $1,067,333,554 | $1,124,595,934 |
Operating expenditures and total expenses are different reported measures, so they should not be substituted for one another. The DPSCD ACFR 0624 FS Final is the source label attached to these fiscal-year figures. The source record provided for this article is identified as legacy research and was not independently verified; the figures are presented as reported by DPSCD.
Spending per pupil
The district reported operating cost per pupil of $13,800 in fiscal year 2017 and $13,075 in fiscal year 2018. The reported operating cost per pupil was $14,949 in fiscal year 2019, $16,118 in fiscal year 2020, and $17,039 in fiscal year 2021.
For fiscal year 2022, DPSCD reported operating cost per pupil of $22,271. The fiscal-year 2024 operating cost per pupil was $22,163. The supplied fiscal-year 2023 record reports operating expenditures but does not provide an operating cost-per-pupil figure.
DPSCD also reported expenses cost per pupil. That measure was $13,895.23 in fiscal year 2017, $13,151.18 in fiscal year 2018, $15,290.19 in fiscal year 2019, and $16,405.62 in fiscal year 2020. It was $17,548.48 in fiscal year 2021, $22,682.49 in fiscal year 2022, and $23,351.73 in fiscal year 2024.
The two per-pupil measures use different labels and should be read within their own series. Operating cost per pupil is not the same reported measure as expenses cost per pupil. The values also belong to fiscal-year reporting, so they should not be interpreted as a monthly cost, a household payment, or a forecast of future school spending.
Source for the per-pupil figures: DPSCD ACFR 0624 FS Final.
Teaching staff and pupil-teacher ratios
DPSCD reported 2,494 teaching staff in fiscal year 2017. The reported teaching-staff count was 2,700 in fiscal year 2018, 2,835 in fiscal year 2019, and 3,098 in fiscal year 2020. The district reported 2,980 teaching staff in fiscal year 2021 and 2,994 in fiscal year 2022. For fiscal year 2024, the reported count was 2,888 teaching staff.
The corresponding pupil-teacher ratios were 18.1 in fiscal year 2017, 18.8 in fiscal year 2018, 17.7 in fiscal year 2019, and 16.4 in fiscal year 2020. DPSCD reported a ratio of 16.7 in fiscal year 2021, 15.9 in fiscal year 2022, and 16.7 in fiscal year 2024.
The supplied record does not state teaching staff or a pupil-teacher ratio for fiscal year 2023. That omission matters when reading the sequence: the available figures support comparisons for the years reported, but not a complete year-by-year staffing series through 2024.
A pupil-teacher ratio is a district-reported summary measure. It should not be read as proof that every classroom had exactly that number of students or that every teacher worked with the same class size. The teaching-staff count is likewise presented as reported by DPSCD and is not expanded here into an unsupported definition of staff assignment or full-time status.
Source for teaching staff and pupil-teacher ratios: DPSCD ACFR 0624 FS Final.
Average daily attendance
DPSCD reported average daily attendance of 85.0% in fiscal year 2017. The figure was 83.0% in fiscal year 2018 and 85.2% in fiscal year 2019. In fiscal year 2020, the district reported average daily attendance of 89.7%.
The reported fiscal-year 2021 average daily attendance was 86.8%. It was 79.0% in fiscal year 2022, 83.0% in fiscal year 2023, and 78.6% in fiscal year 2024.
| Fiscal year | Average daily attendance |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 85.0% |
| 2018 | 83.0% |
| 2019 | 85.2% |
| 2020 | 89.7% |
| 2021 | 86.8% |
| 2022 | 79.0% |
| 2023 | 83.0% |
| 2024 | 78.6% |
Average daily attendance is an attendance measure for the stated fiscal-year period. It is not the same as enrollment, and it does not describe graduation, course completion, or student achievement. The attendance figures therefore provide a participation context alongside, rather than a replacement for, the district’s enrollment and graduation statistics.
Source for the fiscal-year attendance figures: DPSCD ACFR 0624 FS Final.
Graduation rates
For the Class of 2025, DPSCD reported an on-time four-year graduation rate of 83.2%. This figure describes the graduating class and measure named in DPSCD’s 2025 graduation-rate release; it is not a fiscal-year attendance rate or an enrollment count.
DPSCD’s 2025 release said the district’s previous graduation-rate record was 78.3%. It also reported that the Class of 2025 rate was within 0.8 percentage points of the state average of 84.0%. The state comparison is tied to the same release and should not be generalized to other years or other graduation measures.
The release further stated that the graduation rate had improved by 18.7 percentage points from the pandemic low of 64.5% in 2020–21. The 64.5% figure is identified as the pandemic low in that release, while 83.2% identifies the Class of 2025 on-time four-year rate. These are distinct points in the graduation-rate record and should be labeled by their period and measure.
The graduation figures come from the DPSCD 2025 graduation rate release. They complement, but do not replace, the fiscal-year financial, staffing, enrollment, and attendance measures reported in the DPSCD ACFR 0624 FS Final. Reading the statistics together requires keeping the geography—DPSCD—the reporting period, and the definition of each measure explicit.