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Arcadia, Louisiana - 8 schools
An equity score of 72/100 ranks Bienville Parish #23 of 175 districts in Louisiana (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $20,542 per pupil, Bienville Parish ranks #21 of 188 Louisiana districts by per-pupil spending (Louisiana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,971
Total Enrollment
8
Schools
$20,542
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Bienville Parish operates 8 public schools serving 1,971 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Louisiana. The school portfolio breaks down into 8 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 Bienville Parish.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $20,542 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 188 Louisiana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Louisiana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 66.2% local, 18.1% state, and 15.7% 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 72/100, ranked #23 of 175 in Louisiana against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 265.2:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 11.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 58.4% African American, 37.3% White, 1.0% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Ringgold Elementary School, with a diversity index of 56.0/100.
Its largest campus is Castor High School, enrolling 417 students (23% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Bienville High School, at 7 students, a 60x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Castor High School accounts for 21.2% of all Bienville Parish student enrollment
That concentration means Bienville Parish-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.
Bienville Parish school enrollment varies 60× across entities
Bienville Parish school enrollment ranges from 7 students (lowest) to 417 students (highest), a spread of 410 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme enrollment heterogeneity, the district operates both small specialty programs and large comprehensive campuses inside a single budgeting unit. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Bienville Parish has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 72.2% 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.
Bienville Parish student-counselor ratio is 265:1 — 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 Bienville Parish is typically wider than the Bienville Parish-aggregate figure suggests.
Bienville Parish chronic absenteeism rate is 11.5% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.