Blackwater R-Ii operates 1 public schools serving 78 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 other schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage before they move, rent, or enrol. Aggregated across those campuses, enrollment totals 101 pupils using the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is geographically located in Cooper County County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,692 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, which aggregates every revenue and spending line reported under federal accounting standards. The funding mix is 43.7% local, 40.7% state, and 15.5% federal — a breakdown that matters because districts leaning heavily on local revenue are more exposed to property-tax swings, while higher federal shares typically track Title I concentration. Average teacher compensation clocks in at $98,654 per NCES F-33, a signal of the district's ability to recruit and retain staff against neighbouring districts.
a 202:1 student-counselor ratio that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 16.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 92.1% White, 3.0% African American across the district's schools.
Blackwater Elem. accounts for 100.0% of all Blackwater R-Ii student enrollment
That concentration — well above the 8.4% national median for largest-entity share — means Blackwater R-Ii-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: other. 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.
Blackwater R-Ii has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 92.3% 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 — including this one — 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.
Blackwater R-Ii student-counselor ratio is 202:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Blackwater R-Ii chronic absenteeism rate is 16.8% — 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 Blackwater R-Ii is typically wider than the Blackwater R-Ii-aggregate figure suggests.