Understanding NCES IDs vs. LEA IDs
Last updated: June 22, 2026
What are these IDs?
NCES IDs and LEA IDs both come from the National Center for Education Statistics, but they identify different things. An LEA ID is assigned to a school district. An NCES School ID is assigned to an individual school. The school ID is the longer of the two, and it actually contains the district's LEA ID inside it — so if you have a school's ID, you already have its district's ID.
The Two ID Levels
Both IDs are built from a shared structure. The first two digits are always the state FIPS code, and each level stacks onto the one before it.
Pursuit focuses on surfacing district-level information, so the LEA ID should be the primary ID used for educational entities.
ID | What it identifies | Structure |
LEA ID | A school district | 7 digit State FIPS (2) + district code (5) |
NCES (School) ID | A specific school | 12 digit LEA ID (7) + school code (5) |
Example: How do I tell a school ID from a district ID?
Take this 12-digit NCES School ID: 170993000123
First 2 digits = 17 → Illinois (state FIPS code)
First 7 digits = 1709930 → the LEA ID for the district
Last 5 digits = 00123 → the individual school within that district
So to get the district's LEA ID from any school's ID, read the first seven digits. The reverse isn't true — a 7-digit LEA ID identifies the district only, not any single school inside it.