K-12 Districts Have the Lowest Email Security Gateway Adoption in the Public Sector

Education email security analysis: 18,476 K-12 districts and 3,246 higher education institutions across 51 jurisdictions

  • 18,476 K-12 districts in the national registry — the second-largest public entity category
  • Only 8.2% of K-12 domains use an email security gateway — lowest of any entity type (counties: 25.9%, higher ed: 20.4%)
  • K-12 DMARC averages 46.7% nationally — wide state variation from 67.5% (OR) to 7.7% (WV)
  • Higher education leads all entity types with 84.4% DMARC and 20.4% gateway adoption
  • Texas K-12 outperforms: 67.2% DMARC vs 46.7% national average (+20.5pp)
18,476
K-12 Districts
3,246
Higher Ed Institutions
46.7%
K-12 Avg DMARC
84.4%
Higher Ed Avg DMARC
8.2%
K-12 Gateway Rate
20.4%
Higher Ed Gateway Rate

K-12 vs Higher Ed: The Security Gap

Despite near-universal domain coverage, K-12 and higher education show dramatically different email security postures.

MetricK-12Higher EdGap
Entities18,4763,246
Domain Coverage86.3%98.2%+11.9pp
Avg SPF74.6%89.3%+14.7pp
Avg DMARC46.7%84.4%+37.7pp
Gateway Adoption8.2%20.4%+12.2pp

Email Gateway Adoption by Entity Type

K-12 districts are the least likely public-sector entity to use an email security gateway (Barracuda, Proofpoint, Mimecast, etc.), leaving them more exposed to phishing and business email compromise.

K-12 DMARC Rankings by State 49 states

DMARC adoption across K-12 districts varies enormously by state — from 67.5% to 7.7%.

Top 10 States

Bottom 10 States

Higher Education DMARC Rankings 48 states

Top 10 States

Bottom 10 States

K-12 SPF vs DMARC by State

Each bubble is a state. Size = number of K-12 domains. The gap between SPF and DMARC represents districts with basic records but no enforcement.

Full K-12 State Rankings

#StateK-12 EntitiesDomainsSPF %DMARC %DMARC
"K-12 school districts represent the largest gap between digital presence and email security in the U.S. public sector — 86% domain coverage but only 8% gateway adoption." MonitorWorkspace, March 2026

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