The emptiest Chicago Public Schools building held just 3% of its capacity and cost nearly $55,000 per student.
Over half of Chicago Public Schools are underutilized, but the 10 emptiest schools cost nearly double per student the district average.
At least 255 school buildings are underutilized, according to recent data from CPS for the current 2025-2026 school year. That means those schools’ enrollments decreased below 70% of their ideal capacity and “classroom spaces are unused and/or inefficiently programmed.”
Empty schools mean high costs.
The 10 emptiest schools in CPS were at just 11% capacity on average, ranging from 3% at Douglass Academy High School to 16% at Harlan Community Academy High School.
Costs soar at these schools. Average spending per student was nearly $38,000 compared to the district average of nearly $20,000.
The least utilized school in CPS is Douglass Academy High School at just 3% of its capacity. It has just 27 students for the 2025-2026 school year, despite having an ideal capacity of over 1,000 students.
This came at a cost of $54,695 per student last school year. That’s nearly $35,000 more per student than the district average.
This isn’t a new problem for the district. A 2018 CPS board policy sought to address under-enrolled schools, but that was years ago and hundreds of school buildings remain too empty.
Why? CPS can do little to solve the problem as long as the Chicago Teachers Union forces it to keep these nearly empty schools open. CTU’s contract dictates the district not close schools, preferring high costs to house a few students to efficient use of resources and taxes that could better educate the children at those empty schools.
While CPS enrollment continues to decline, taxpayers are on the hook for larger and larger district budgets each year to educate fewer and fewer students. Property taxes just jumped $25 million and rose 62% in 15 years thanks to the district’s ballooning spending.
CPS is in a financial crisis it can’t long endure. All cost-saving options should be on the table, especially when empty schools are hurting the achievement of students who are already struggling.