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Cave City, Kentucky - 3 schools
An equity score of 78/100 ranks Caverna Independent #21 of 171 districts in Kentucky (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $18,276 per pupil, Caverna Independent ranks #4 of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending (Kentucky districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
647
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$18,276
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Caverna Independent operates 3 public schools serving 647 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Kentucky. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 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 Barren County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $18,276 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 18 of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending. See how Kentucky compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 31.6% local, 40.5% state, and 27.9% 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 #21 of 171 in Kentucky 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 218:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 32.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 71.8% White, 11.4% African American, 6.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Caverna High School, with a diversity index of 53.7/100.
Its largest campus is Caverna Elementary School, enrolling 330 students (50% of the district's total enrollment).
Caverna Elementary School accounts for 50.5% of all Caverna Independent student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Caverna Independent a distant remainder — means Caverna Independent-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.
Caverna Independent school enrollment varies 2.9× across entities
Caverna Independent school enrollment ranges from 115 students (lowest) to 330 students (highest), a spread of 215 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.
Caverna Independent has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 76.8% 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.
Caverna Independent student-counselor ratio is 218:1 — 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.
Caverna Independent chronic absenteeism rate is 32.9% — 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.