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Amesbury, Massachusetts - 5 schools
An equity score of 49/100 ranks Amesbury #76 of 362 districts in Massachusetts (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $23,278 per pupil, Amesbury ranks #138 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,809
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$23,278
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Amesbury operates 5 public schools serving 1,809 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Massachusetts. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined, 2 high, 1 elementary schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Essex County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $23,278 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 51.7% local, 40.6% state, and 7.7% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 49/100, ranked #76 of 362 in Massachusetts against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (3 AP courses district-wide), a 185.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 29.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 78.5% White, 13.3% Hispanic or Latino, 1.8% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Amesbury Innovation High School, with a diversity index of 42.2/100.
Its largest campus is Amesbury Elementary, enrolling 485 students (27% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Amesbury Innovation High School, at 50 students, a 10x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Amesbury Elementary accounts for 26.8% of all Amesbury student enrollment
That concentration means Amesbury-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Amesbury school enrollment varies 9.7× across entities
Amesbury school enrollment ranges from 50 students (lowest) to 485 students (highest), a spread of 435 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Amesbury student-counselor ratio is 186:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Amesbury chronic absenteeism rate is 29.2% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Variation between sub-units within Amesbury is typically wider than the Amesbury-aggregate figure suggests.