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.
Calistoga, California - 3 schools
An equity score of 74/100 ranks Calistoga Joint Unified #182 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $25,785 per pupil, Calistoga Joint Unified ranks #101 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
807
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$25,785
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Calistoga Joint Unified operates 3 public schools serving 807 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 combined, 1 high 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 Napa County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $25,785 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 187 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 80.7% local, 14.2% state, and 5.0% 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 74/100, ranked #182 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 3 schools offering Advanced Placement (6 AP courses district-wide), a 232.2:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 24.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.0% Hispanic or Latino, 5.6% White, 5.0% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Calistoga Elementary, with a diversity index of 25.4/100.
Its largest campus is Calistoga Elementary, enrolling 405 students (53% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Palisades High (Continuation), at 7 students, a 58x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Calistoga Elementary accounts for 50.2% of all Calistoga Joint Unified student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Calistoga Joint Unified a distant remainder — means Calistoga Joint Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Calistoga Joint Unified school enrollment varies 58× across entities
Calistoga Joint Unified school enrollment ranges from 7 students (lowest) to 405 students (highest), a spread of 398 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.
Calistoga Joint Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 72.4% 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.
Calistoga Joint Unified student-counselor ratio is 232:1 — 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.
Calistoga Joint Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 24.9% — 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 Calistoga Joint Unified is typically wider than the Calistoga Joint Unified-aggregate figure suggests.