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Challis, Idaho - 3 schools
An equity score of 73/100 ranks Challis Joint District #14 of 139 districts in Idaho (state average 48). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,663 per pupil, Challis Joint District ranks #40 of 171 Idaho districts by per-pupil spending (Idaho districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
328
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$13,663
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Challis Joint District operates 3 public schools serving 328 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Idaho. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined, 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 Custer County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,663 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 171 Idaho districts by per-pupil spending. See how Idaho compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 21.4% local, 55.9% state, and 22.7% 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 73/100, ranked #14 of 139 in Idaho against a state average of 48, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 154.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, . Demographically, the student body averages 91.7% White, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Challis Elementary School, with a diversity index of 20.3/100.
Its largest campus is Challis Elementary School, enrolling 173 students (52% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Stanley Elem/Jr High School, at 23 students, a 8x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Challis Elementary School accounts for 52.1% of all Challis Joint District student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Challis Joint District a distant remainder — means Challis Joint District-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.
Challis Joint District school enrollment varies 7.5× across entities
Challis Joint District school enrollment ranges from 23 students (lowest) to 173 students (highest), a spread of 150 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.
Challis Joint District student-counselor ratio is 155:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.