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Arlington, South Dakota - 4 schools
An equity score of 36/100 ranks Arlington School District 38-1 #84 of 121 districts in South Dakota (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,023 per pupil, Arlington School District 38-1 ranks #71 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (South Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
303
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$13,023
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Arlington School District 38-1 operates 4 public schools serving 303 students, placing it among the smallest districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 high, 1 middle, 1 combined 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 Kingsbury County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,023 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 68.5% local, 20.1% state, and 11.4% 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 36/100, ranked #84 of 121 in South Dakota against a state average of 51, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (1 AP courses district-wide), a 275.5:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 7.7% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 88.4% White, 9.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Arlington Preschool - 04, with a diversity index of 29.0/100.
Its largest campus is Arlington Elementary - 02, enrolling 152 students (52% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Arlington Preschool - 04, at 17 students, a 9x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Arlington Elementary - 02 accounts for 50.2% of all Arlington School District 38-1 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Arlington School District 38-1 a distant remainder — means Arlington School District 38-1-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.
Arlington School District 38-1 school enrollment varies 8.9× across entities
Arlington School District 38-1 school enrollment ranges from 17 students (lowest) to 152 students (highest), a spread of 135 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.
Arlington School District 38-1 student-counselor ratio is 276:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Arlington School District 38-1 is typically wider than the Arlington School District 38-1-aggregate figure suggests.
Arlington School District 38-1 chronic absenteeism rate is 7.7% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 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.
Comparisons are relative to Arlington School District 38-1's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in South Dakota
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.