Schools in Jacksonville, Florida

Nine Jacksonville schools guides sit under this hub, and the table pairs each common question about Duval County schooling with the key fact and the guide that covers it in depth.

Each Jacksonville guide below goes further than this hub: the district guide covers governance, enrollment and performance, the board guide covers seats and elections, and the three university guides cover campuses, history and recent changes.

Duval County Public Schools, the public district that educates Jacksonville students, calls itself the 18th largest district in the nation, with 197 schools and 126,596 students (About DCPS).

Charter schools are a large part of the Jacksonville public system: 44 of the 197 Duval schools are charters, and they enroll 26,404 students, about one in five (About DCPS). The district employs 10,500 full-time and 1,060 part-time staff, 11,560 in all.

The Duval County Public Schools office is at 1701 Prudential Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32207, phone 904-390-2000 (DCPS). The first day of the 2026-27 school year was August 10, 2026 (DCPS home page).

The Master Facility Plan, funded by a voter-approved half-penny tax, is in implementation; DCPS says the plan aims to remove most portable classrooms and over $1 billion in deferred facility maintenance over the next 15 years (About DCPS).

Every Jacksonville student has a neighborhood school assigned by home address, and DCPS also offers a Special Transfer Option, magnet schools and high school acceleration programs (DCPS School Choice).

The Duval school choice page groups the out-of-county, employee, military family and Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten options under Special Assignment Application Processes, apart from the neighborhood, transfer, magnet and acceleration routes (DCPS School Choice). The magnet programs guide and the Stanton College Prep guide explain those programs and their history.

Duval County Public Schools describes itself as an A-rated district, and its home page says 98 percent of Jacksonville district schools earned an A, B or C grade (DCPS home page).

The same Duval page reports a graduation rate in traditional district high schools that rose from 80.5 percent in 2013 to 97.6 percent in 2025 (DCPS). The superintendent's welcome letter adds that 45 Duval schools improved one or two letter grades in the 2024-2025 school year (DCPS superintendent).

The district pages do not all agree, and that matters for anyone comparing Jacksonville schools. The About DCPS page still says more than 99 percent of schools earned an A, B or C and links the 2024 Florida School Grades (About DCPS), the school choice page shows 99 percent A, B or C schools and a 95.3 percent traditional high school graduation rate (DCPS School Choice), and the superintendent's letter cites a 95 percent graduation rate (DCPS superintendent), while the Florida Department of Education has posted 2026 school grades, with its results packet updated September 8, 2026 and a separate overview of grading scale changes (FDOE school grades). A Jacksonville school's 2026 grade is best checked in the state files rather than on an older district page.

Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier runs Duval County Public Schools, with a seven-member School Board listed by district (DCPS superintendent, DCPS School Board).

Each Duval board member represents a numbered district of Jacksonville, and the board page lists a direct phone number and email for each (DCPS School Board). The Duval County School Board guide covers how the seats, elections and board decisions work. Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the DCPS website.

Three Jacksonville universities have guides in this section: the University of North Florida, Jacksonville University and Edward Waters University (UNF, JU, EWU).

The University of North Florida opened in October 1972 to a charter class of 2,000 students on a Jacksonville campus built on 1,000 acres of timberland under founding president Thomas G. Carpenter (UNF Library fact sheet).

Jacksonville University was founded in 1934 and is a private not-for-profit university offering degrees up to the doctorate on a 260-acre campus (Jacksonville University).

Edward Waters University calls itself Florida's first independent institution of higher learning and Florida's first institution established for the education of African Americans (Edward Waters University). The historically Black university is at 1658 Kings Road, Jacksonville, FL 32209, and is accredited by SACSCOC and a member of UNCF (EWU).

The UNF, Jacksonville University and Edward Waters University guides each cover campus history and recent changes, and the Jacksonville Public Library guide covers the city library system that serves students of every age.

Private schools in Jacksonville are not licensed, approved, accredited or regulated by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE private schools).

State law requires each Florida private school, including those in Jacksonville, to complete an annual online survey, and the answers feed the statewide Directory of Private Schools, which the department maintains as a service to the public, to government agencies and to others seeking information about Florida private schools (FDOE).

Charter schools are a different thing: the 44 Jacksonville charter schools are public schools counted inside Duval County Public Schools, with 26,404 students (About DCPS). The private schools guide covers the larger Jacksonville private schools and how state scholarships apply to them.