This report provides a thorough examination of town and rural schools (collectively referred to as nonmetropolitan schools) in South Carolina, using designations of town and rural from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). The NCES framework, which defines schools as being located in cities, suburbs, towns, or rural areas, follows the U.S. Census Bureau's guidelines. It relies on factors like population size, where cities and suburbs are considered urban areas with many people (more than 50,000), towns are smaller urban clusters with fewer people (less than 50,000), and rural areas have very few residents (less than 5,000). Schools in urban clusters are given town designations, while those not in urban areas or clusters are rural. NCES also categorizes these schools based on how far they are from nearby cities or towns: close (fringe), somewhat removed (distant), or far away (remote). In South Carolina, around 53% of public schools are situated in town or rural areas. These schools serve approximately 350,000 students, which makes up about 44% of the total student population in the state. Additionally, nearly 23,000 teachers--44% of all teachers in South Carolina--are employed in these town and rural schools.