Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Arlee, Montana - 2 schools
An equity score of 71/100 ranks Arlee Elem #4 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $19,579 per pupil, Arlee Elem ranks #136 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
270
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$19,579
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Arlee Elem operates 2 public schools serving 270 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 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 Lake County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,579 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 16.1% local, 38.7% state, and 45.1% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 71/100, ranked #4 of 141 in Montana against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 160:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 59.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 23.9% White, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Arlee Elementary, enrolling 206 students (78% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Arlee 7-8, at 57 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Arlee Elementary accounts for 76.3% of all Arlee Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Arlee Elem a distant remainder — means Arlee Elem-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.
Arlee Elem student-counselor ratio is 160:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Arlee Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 59.5% — 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.