At $31,573 per pupil, Baker Valley Unified ranks #77 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
124
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$31,573
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Baker Valley Unified operates 3 public schools serving 124 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 middle, 1 high 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 San Bernardino County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $31,573 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 188 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 64.8% local, 23.1% state, and 12.2% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
and 23.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 83.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.6% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Baker Junior High, with a diversity index of 35.3/100.
Its largest campus is Baker Elementary, enrolling 59 students (47% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses grew 4% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (124 to 129 students), while the student-teacher ratio held roughly steady, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $4,313,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 48.2% went to instruction, 38.1% to support services, and 7.3% to capital outlay, support-services-heavy relative to typical districts, reflecting spending on transportation, administration, or student services. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Baker Elementary accounts for 47.2% of all Baker Valley Unified student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Baker Valley Unified a distant remainder — means Baker Valley Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates 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.
Baker Valley Unified reports 53.2% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Baker Valley Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 23.4% — 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 Baker Valley Unified is typically wider than the Baker Valley Unified-aggregate figure suggests.