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Box Elder, Montana - 2 schools
An equity score of 59/100 ranks Box Elder Elem #20 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $21,589 per pupil, Box Elder Elem ranks #108 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
303
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$21,589
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Box Elder Elem operates 2 public schools serving 303 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 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 Hill County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $21,589 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 10.6% local, 25.6% state, and 63.8% federal, an unusually federal-heavy mix, typically a marker of concentrated Title I eligibility or a small district reliant on federal impact-aid programs. The district's equity score is 59/100, ranked #20 of 141 in Montana against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 748.4:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 90.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 2.4% Hispanic or Latino, 0.2% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Box Elder School, enrolling 232 students (78% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Box Elder 7-8, at 66 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Box Elder School accounts for 76.6% of all Box Elder Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Box Elder Elem a distant remainder — means Box Elder Elem-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.
Box Elder Elem student-counselor ratio is 748:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.
Box Elder Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 90.1% — 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.