At $17,642 per pupil, Bison School District 52-1 ranks #18 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (South Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
134
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$17,642
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Bison School District 52-1 operates 3 public schools serving 134 students, placing it among the smallest districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 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 Perkins County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $17,642 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 61.9% local, 19.3% state, and 18.9% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 134.4:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 23.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 88.3% White, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Bison Jr. High - 04, with a diversity index of 29.7/100.
Its largest campus is Bison Elementary - 02, enrolling 65 students (48% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Bison Jr. High - 04, at 18 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Bison Elementary - 02 accounts for 48.1% of all Bison School District 52-1 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Bison School District 52-1 a distant remainder — means Bison School District 52-1-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.
Bison School District 52-1 school enrollment varies 3.6× across entities
Bison School District 52-1 school enrollment ranges from 18 students (lowest) to 65 students (highest), a spread of 47 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Bison School District 52-1 student-counselor ratio is 134:1 — 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.
Bison School District 52-1 chronic absenteeism rate is 23.2% — 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 Bison School District 52-1 is typically wider than the Bison School District 52-1-aggregate figure suggests.