At $13,292 per pupil, Charlo Elem ranks #281 of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
161
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$13,292
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Charlo Elem operates 2 public schools serving 161 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 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 Lake County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,292 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 28.4% local, 53.7% state, and 17.8% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
a 137:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 24.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 75.4% White, 1.7% Hispanic or Latino, 1.1% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Charlo Elementary, enrolling 89 students (65% of the district's total enrollment).
Charlo Elementary accounts for 55.3% of all Charlo Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Charlo Elem a distant remainder — means Charlo Elem-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Charlo Elem student-counselor ratio is 137:1 — 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.
Charlo Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 24.8% — 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 Charlo Elem is typically wider than the Charlo Elem-aggregate figure suggests.