Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Columbia, Louisiana - 5 schools
An equity score of 78/100 ranks Caldwell Parish #12 of 175 districts in Louisiana (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $17,040 per pupil, Caldwell Parish ranks #55 of 188 Louisiana districts by per-pupil spending (Louisiana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,502
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$17,040
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Caldwell Parish operates 5 public schools serving 1,502 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Louisiana. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 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 Caldwell Parish.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $17,040 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 28.0% local, 48.1% state, and 23.9% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 78/100, ranked #12 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 398:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 14.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 79.7% White, 14.8% African American, 2.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Caldwell Parish High School, with a diversity index of 37.1/100.
Its largest campus is Caldwell Parish High School, enrolling 398 students (30% of the district's total enrollment).
Caldwell Parish High School accounts for 26.5% of all Caldwell Parish student enrollment
That concentration means Caldwell Parish-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Caldwell Parish school enrollment varies 2.1× across entities
Caldwell Parish school enrollment ranges from 191 students (lowest) to 398 students (highest), a spread of 207 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.
Caldwell Parish has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 63.6% 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.
Caldwell Parish student-counselor ratio is 398:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Caldwell Parish chronic absenteeism rate is 14.2% — 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.