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Barstow, California - 12 schools
An equity score of 57/100 ranks Barstow Unified #569 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,518 per pupil, Barstow Unified ranks #1322 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
6,396
Total Enrollment
12
Schools
$13,518
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Barstow Unified operates 12 public schools serving 6,396 students, placing it among the smaller districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 8 elementary, 2 high, 1 middle, 1 combined schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. 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 $13,518 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 9.4% local, 79.5% state, and 11.1% 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 57/100, ranked #569 of 1517 in California 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 12 schools offering Advanced Placement (9 AP courses district-wide), a 327.9:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 68.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 54.0% Hispanic or Latino, 24.0% African American, 13.7% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Crestline Elementary, with a diversity index of 66.4/100.
Its largest campus is Barstow High, enrolling 1,558 students (29% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Busd School of Opportunity, at 9 students, a 173x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Barstow High accounts for 24.4% of all Barstow Unified student enrollment
That concentration means Barstow Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Barstow Unified school enrollment varies 173× across entities
Barstow Unified school enrollment ranges from 9 students (lowest) to 1,558 students (highest), a spread of 1,549 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Barstow Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 74.5% 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.
Barstow Unified student-counselor ratio is 328:1 — 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 Barstow Unified is typically wider than the Barstow Unified-aggregate figure suggests.
Barstow Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 68.5% — 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.