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Caruthers, California - 3 schools
An equity score of 77/100 ranks Caruthers Unified #133 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,908 per pupil, Caruthers Unified ranks #547 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,568
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$16,908
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Caruthers Unified operates 3 public schools serving 1,568 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 high, 1 elementary 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 Fresno County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,908 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 18.7% local, 65.6% state, and 15.7% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 77/100, ranked #133 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 (3 AP courses district-wide), a 588.5:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 32.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 82.5% Hispanic or Latino, 12.8% White, 1.9% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Marc High, with a diversity index of 42.6/100.
Its largest campus is Caruthers Elementary, enrolling 836 students (54% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Marc High, at 18 students, a 46x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Caruthers Elementary accounts for 53.3% of all Caruthers Unified student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Caruthers Unified a distant remainder — means Caruthers 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.
Caruthers Unified school enrollment varies 46× across entities
Caruthers Unified school enrollment ranges from 18 students (lowest) to 836 students (highest), a spread of 818 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.
Caruthers Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 79.3% 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.
Caruthers Unified student-counselor ratio is 589:1 — 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.
Caruthers Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 32.5% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.