Compiled from official source data by PlainSchools.
7 public K-12 schools in Plankinton from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Plankinton has more public-school enrollment than 1% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Plankinton Elementary - 02 enrolls 45.4% of Plankinton's public-school students. That is enough concentration for one institution to pull the citywide enrollment, staffing, and Resource Index averages toward its own profile. The smaller campuses below should therefore be compared directly rather than inferred from the headline mean; their grade configurations and program footprints can be materially different even inside the same district.
Secondary campuses occupy an unusually large share
3 of the 7 listed Plankinton schools are classified as high schools, a substantial share of the local portfolio. Advanced-course access, counseling, and graduation-stage staffing therefore have more weight in the city Resource Index average than they do in an elementary-heavy system.
A small portfolio contains radically different campus scales
Plankinton lists only 7 schools, yet reported enrollment runs from 2 to 132 students, a 66-fold range. In a portfolio this compact, the smallest record may be a specialized or nonstandard setting rather than a miniature version of the largest campus. That distinction affects how ratios and program fields should be read. Compare similarly configured grade levels first; combining the extremes into one city average conceals more than it explains.
City enrollment
Top 99%
School count
Top 65%
Resource Index average
83rd percentile
Teacher staffing
92nd percentile
Plankinton Elementary - 02 accounts for 45.4% of all Plankinton public-school enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Plankinton a distant remainder — means Plankinton-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: Combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.
Plankinton school enrollment varies 66× across entities
Plankinton school enrollment ranges from 2 students (lowest) to 132 students (highest), a spread of 130 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Plankinton operates one school district — a single-district system
Plankinton's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.
Plankinton student-teacher ratio is 11.5:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Plankinton
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
Which Plankinton school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼
Plankinton Elementary - 02 has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Plankinton schools in this federal-data comparison at 60/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
How many schools are in Plankinton, SD? ▼
Plankinton has 7 public schools with a total enrollment of 291 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 11.5:1.
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio,
counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes:
verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
