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Arcata, California - 2 schools
An equity score of 82/100 ranks Arcata Elementary #67 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $37,179 per pupil, Arcata Elementary ranks #34 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
482
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$37,179
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Arcata Elementary operates 2 public schools serving 482 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 middle 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 Humboldt County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $37,179 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 187 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 31.5% local, 52.2% state, and 16.3% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 82/100, ranked #67 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
and 42.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 50.8% White, 23.9% Hispanic or Latino, 3.2% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Arcata Elementary, enrolling 240 students (51% of the district's total enrollment).
Arcata Elementary accounts for 49.8% of all Arcata Elementary student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Arcata Elementary a distant remainder — means Arcata Elementary-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Arcata Elementary has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 62.9% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Eligibility here is approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Arcata Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 42.5% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.