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Bellingham, Massachusetts - 6 schools
An equity score of 37/100 ranks Bellingham #193 of 362 districts in Massachusetts (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $23,244 per pupil, Bellingham ranks #139 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
2,027
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$23,244
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Bellingham operates 6 public schools serving 2,027 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Massachusetts. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 combined, 3 elementary 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 Norfolk County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $23,244 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 59.2% local, 33.3% state, and 7.4% 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 37/100, ranked #193 of 362 in Massachusetts against a state average of 38, 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 (11 AP courses district-wide), a 130.3:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 31.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 74.1% White, 17.1% Hispanic or Latino, 2.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Joseph F Dipietro Elementary School, with a diversity index of 50.2/100.
Its largest campus is Bellingham High School, enrolling 740 students (35% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Keough Memorial Academy, at 29 students, a 26x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Bellingham High School accounts for 34.9% of all Bellingham student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Bellingham-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.
Bellingham school enrollment varies 26× across entities
Bellingham school enrollment ranges from 29 students (lowest) to 740 students (highest), a spread of 711 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.
Bellingham student-counselor ratio is 130:1 — 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.
Bellingham chronic absenteeism rate is 31.8% — 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.