Magnet schools and magnet programs offer a specialized curriculum to students outside the school’s normal attendance boundaries. Magnet schools are public schools with a particular theme or academic focus, such as mathematics, science, technology, business, or performing arts. They provide parents and students with the option of choosing a school that matches a student's interests. Magnet schools offer students specialized programs and create innovative learning approaches in a diverse environment. A magnet school is defined as an elementary, middle, or high school that offers, to all students enrolled in that particular school, a special curriculum capable of attracting substantial numbers of students of different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Magnet programs differ slightly from a magnet school as the special curriculum is offered to a cohort of students as opposed to the entire school.