School districts in Alabama
51% of the 648 populated ZIP Code areas in Alabama are served by more than one school district — 332 of them, which puts the state 25th among the fifty-two. It is organized into 141 unified districts, the largest being Mobile County at 172,896 homes. Its most divided ZIP Code area, 35022, is split between 5 districts for elementary grades alone. The two districts that share the most ZIP Codes here are Jefferson County and Birmingham City, in 17 of them. Counted by homes rather than by ZIP Code area, 66% of the state's housing sits in a ZIP Code that more than one district serves.
How many school districts are in Alabama?
141: the Census boundary file draws 141 school districts in Alabama that reach at least one ZIP Code area with homes, 141 unified, 0 elementary and 0 secondary. A ZIP Code here can sit in more than one of them, which is why a school district lookup by ZIP Code for Alabama lists them all: find your school district by ZIP code.
How often a ZIP Code here crosses a district line
The state is close to the national rate of 53%. Every count below comes from the census blocks in each ZIP Code area rather than from any published table; Mobile County is the largest district in it, at 172,896 homes.
- ZIP Code areas with a district648
- Served by more than one district332 (51%)
- Grade school and high school differ0 (0%)
- No high school district named0
- Unified districts141
- Elementary districts0
- Secondary districts0
- Homes in no district at all0
District pages for Alabama, largest first
Ranked by the homes inside their boundaries: Hoover City leads at 38,711, then Dothan City at 33,234 and Phenix City City at 16,986. Only districts with a page here are listed; 134 more in the state have none.
- Hoover City School District38,711 homes · 9 ZIP areas
- Dothan City School District33,234 homes · 7 ZIP areas
- Phenix City City School District16,986 homes · 5 ZIP areas
- Gadsden City School District16,890 homes · 6 ZIP areas
- Gulf Shores City School District12,894 homes · 4 ZIP areas
- Athens City School District11,657 homes · 5 ZIP areas
- Anniston City School District11,165 homes · 6 ZIP areas
The most divided ZIP Code area in Alabama
ZIP Code area 35022 holds 9,956 homes, and 5 districts each take a meaningful share of them for elementary grades — Jefferson County first at 55%, then Bessemer City. A lookup that names the first is describing that share of the homes and silently not the 4,512 homes that remain.
Each percentage here is a share of the 9,956 homes counted in ZIP Code 35022, not the chance that any one address is in that district. Enrollment follows the street: two houses on opposite sides of the same road can be in different districts, and only the district office can say which.
Every track below is 35 cells long and stands for all 9,956 homes counted in ZIP Code 35022, so one cell is 284 homes, rounded to the nearest whole cell. Cells lit solid are the homes one district holds, and the unlit cells are the homes held by the other districts in the same list.
- Jefferson County School District5,444 of 9,956 homes55%
- Bessemer City School District3,965 of 9,956 homes40%
- Shelby County School District255 of 9,956 homes2.6%
- Birmingham City School District232 of 9,956 homes2.3%
- Hoover City School District60 of 9,956 homes0.6%
For grade school, an answer of one district name would be wrong for 4,512 of the 9,956 here.
How much of Alabama a single district name misses
Across the 648 ZIP Code areas in Alabama with homes in them, an answer of one district name misses 346,689 of the 2,288,218 homes they hold — 15% of the state. In 289 of those areas the largest district for the early grades holds every home counted; in the other 359 it leaves some out. That is a different count from the 332 areas served by more than one district: it also counts districts under half a percent of the homes and homes in no district, and it does not count a high school district that differs.
ZIP Code 35216 · Vestavia Hills, Alabama names 5 districts. Hoover City is the largest of them for grade school, and an answer of its name alone misses 9,809 of the 17,391 homes there; for grade school the rest is 9,737 homes with Vestavia Hills City, Jefferson County, Homewood City and one more district; 72 homes in a district too small to name here.
ZIP Code 35242 · Hoover, Alabama names 5 districts. Shelby County is the largest of them for grade school, and an answer of its name alone misses 9,391 of the 24,215 homes there; for grade school the rest is 9,370 homes with Hoover City, Vestavia Hills City, Birmingham City and one more district; 21 homes in districts too small to name here.
In ZIP Code 35215 · Birmingham, Alabama the largest district for grade school is Jefferson County, and naming it alone misses 8,780 of the 20,014 homes counted there. For grade school the rest is 8,780 homes with Birmingham City.
Where a ZIP Code here names more than one district
Of the 648 ZIP Code areas in Alabama that the federal file names a district for, 332 name more than one school district. These are the 12 with the most, starting at 5 districts in one postal area: Bessemer, Leeds and Vestavia Hills. Each row opens the full answer for that ZIP Code, with every district named for grade school and for high school and the share of the homes each one holds.
- ZIP Code 35022 · Bessemer, Alabama5 districts · 9,956 homes
- ZIP Code 35094 · Leeds, Alabama5 districts · 6,513 homes
- ZIP Code 35216 · Vestavia Hills, Alabama5 districts · 17,391 homes
- ZIP Code 35226 · Hoover, Alabama5 districts · 15,118 homes
- ZIP Code 35242 · Hoover, Alabama5 districts · 24,215 homes
- ZIP Code 35243 · Vestavia Hills, Alabama5 districts · 10,394 homes
- ZIP Code 35957 · Boaz, Alabama5 districts · 6,820 homes
- ZIP Code 36804 · Opelika, Alabama5 districts · 8,456 homes
- ZIP Code 35010 · Alexander City, Alabama4 districts · 10,544 homes
- ZIP Code 35016 · Arab, Alabama4 districts · 7,546 homes
- ZIP Code 35111 · McCalla, Alabama4 districts · 7,615 homes
- ZIP Code 35124 · Pelham, Alabama4 districts · 10,372 homes
What to do next
Ask the district office to confirm your street address: look on its site for a school locator, a find my school tool or an attendance zone map, or call the office.
A ZIP Code is a set of mail delivery routes, not a boundary: 332 of the 648 ZIP Code areas in Alabama with a district named for them are served by more than one school district, and the line between two of them runs along streets. Only the district can say which side of that line an address is on.
District websites and phone numbers here come from the NCES Common Core of Data directory, 2024-25 school year, filed under the same district ID as the Census boundary files. Where it lists no usable website, none is printed rather than guessed.
If a house purchase depends on the answer, ask the district itself for written confirmation of that exact address. A listing is not a district record, and neither is this page.
Where these numbers come from
The homes were counted in the 2020 Census and the district lines are the 2026 boundary file, so a fast-growing area may have changed since; ZIP Codes here are the Census Bureau's ZIP Code Tabulation Areas; a share is a share of homes, not the chance that one address is in a district; and a district is not a school attendance zone. Every source, file and caveat is on the method page.