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Bardstown, Kentucky - 6 schools
An equity score of 49/100 ranks Bardstown Independent #86 of 171 districts in Kentucky (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,950 per pupil, Bardstown Independent ranks #42 of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending (Kentucky districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
2,716
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$13,950
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Bardstown Independent operates 6 public schools serving 2,716 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Kentucky. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 2 combined, 1 high, 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 Nelson County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,950 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending. See how Kentucky compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 28.3% local, 53.3% state, and 18.4% 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 49/100, ranked #86 of 171 in Kentucky against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (14 AP courses district-wide), a 555.9:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 34.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 63.4% White, 11.0% African American, 8.1% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Bardstown Alternative School, with a diversity index of 58.2/100.
Its largest campus is Bardstown Elementary School, enrolling 847 students (30% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Bardstown Alternative School, at 31 students, a 27x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Bardstown Elementary School accounts for 29.5% of all Bardstown Independent student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Bardstown Independent-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.
Bardstown Independent school enrollment varies 27× across entities
Bardstown Independent school enrollment ranges from 31 students (lowest) to 847 students (highest), a spread of 816 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Bardstown Independent has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 51.8% 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). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. 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.
Bardstown Independent student-counselor ratio is 556:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.
Bardstown Independent chronic absenteeism rate is 34.5% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.