Census SAIPE School District Poverty API

What you can build

Single-year model-based total population, relevant children ages 5–17 and related children in families in poverty. Not enrollment, free/reduced-price lunch counts or grant awards. Derived poverty shares use slightly different numerator/denominator universes; zero denominators remain undefined. No district confidence intervals or geometry in this source; district populations can overlap. Use this dataset as a sourced input to an application, analytical model or retrieval tool. Retain its native dimensions when joining it with your own records.

Query Census SAIPE School District Poverty

The example below is a real bounded request against the available release. Replace the environment variable with your server-side API credential. Review endpoint parameters and response schemas before changing selectors.

curl --fail --get "https://api.geoamcan.com/v1/education/district-poverty?lea_id=0100001&include_details=True&limit=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GEOAMCAN_API_KEY"

Saved response excerpt

{
  "requested_area": {
    "year": 2024,
    "state": null,
    "lea_id": "0100001",
    "q": null,
    "include_details": true
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "year": 2024,
      "lea_id": "0100001",
      "state_fips": "01",
      "district_id": "00001",
      "name": "Fort Rucker School District",
      "total_population": 4547,
      "relevant_children_5_17": 855,
      "related_children_5_17_in_poverty": 21,
      "source_tag": "ussd24.txt 17FEB2026",
      "source_line": "01 00001 Fort Rucker School District                                                  4547      855       21 ussd24.txt 17FEB2026  ",
      "derived_poverty_share_percent": 2.456140350877193,
      "poverty_share_status": "derived_from_different_universes"
    }
  ],
  "availability": {
    "status": "available",
    "installed_estimate_year": "2024",
    "boundary_school_year": "2024-2025",
    "districts_as_of": "2025-01-01",
    "confidence_intervals_available": false,
    "geometry_available": false,
    "grant_eligibility_determined": false
  },
  "snapshot": {
    "census-saipe": {
      "release_id": 127,
      "release": "2024",
      "fingerprint": "d2e86eff0c6f4c35b2526d0af42d8f61"
    }
  },
  "returned_count": 1,
  "complete": true,
  "next_offset": null,
  "limitations": [
    "Census SAIPE 2024 single-year model-based school-district estimates, published February 2026, using 2024–2025 school-year boundaries as of January 1, 2025. Relevant children ages 5–17 are assigned by district grade responsibility, including public/private-school and unenrolled residents; these are not enrollment or free/reduced-price lunch counts. The poverty numerator is related children ages 5–17 in families in poverty, while the denominator includes all relevant children ages 5–17. Their ratio is a derived share with different universes, not a true poverty rate. A zero denominator has no defined percentage. District total populations can overlap and must not be summed into a state or national population. This source contains no district-specific confidence intervals or geometries. Installed 2026 boundaries are a different vintage and are not automatically joined. Counts are estimates, not grant awards, school-level poverty, individual eligibility or a complete Title I allocation calculation."
  ],
  "source_attribution": {
    "census-saipe": "US Census Bureau SAIPE — https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2024/demo/saipe/2024-school-districts.html"
  },
  "metric_definitions": {
    "lea_id": "Two-character state FIPS plus five-character source CCD district ID; leading zeros retained. Names alone are not unique.",
    "total_population": "Estimated all-age population within the district territory; overlaps between districts prevent summing into state/national totals.",
    "relevant_children_5_17": "Resident children ages 5–17 assigned to district grade responsibility, including private-school and unenrolled children; not enrollment.",
    "related_children_5_17_in_poverty": "Relevant children ages 5–17 related to the householder and in families below Census poverty thresholds. Not free/reduced-price lunch counts.",
    "derived_poverty_share_percent": "100 × related_children_5_17_in_poverty / relevant_children_5_17. Calculated from published integer estimates; numerator/denominator universes differ, so this is not a true poverty rate. Null for zero/missing denominator or missing numerator.",
    "source_tag": "Native filename and creation date; creation/publication year is distinct from estimate year.",
    "source_line": "Optional original fixed-width line decoded reversibly from Windows-1252; padding and native strings retained. The entire original file and checksum are retained separately."
  }
}

Captured 2026-11-07. Excerpt omits pagination credentials and may shorten nested records. Download verified source responses.

Coverage and interpretation

Census SAIPE 2024 single-year model-based school-district estimates, published February 2026, using 2024–2025 school-year boundaries as of January 1, 2025. Relevant children ages 5–17 are assigned by district grade responsibility, including public/private-school and unenrolled residents; these are not enrollment or free/reduced-price lunch counts. The poverty numerator is related children ages 5–17 in families in poverty, while the denominator includes all relevant children ages 5–17. Their ratio is a derived share with different universes, not a true poverty rate. A zero denominator has no defined percentage. District total populations can overlap and must not be summed into a state or national population. This source contains no district-specific confidence intervals or geometries. Installed 2026 boundaries are a different vintage and are not automatically joined. Counts are estimates, not grant awards, school-level poverty, individual eligibility or a complete Title I allocation calculation.

The active release shown here is a catalog snapshot. Check the live catalog and response provenance for current readiness. The underlying public source and Geoamcan access terms are separate; consult the source’s licensing and attribution requirements.

Source and methodology

Source: US Census Bureau. Geoamcan is an independent API provider, with no agency affiliation or endorsement. Read our data methodology for source handling, geographic joins and update practices.

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