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.
Gaffney, South Carolina - 14 schools
An equity score of 51/100 ranks Cherokee 01 #36 of 73 districts in South Carolina (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,030 per pupil, Cherokee 01 ranks #31 of 74 South Carolina districts by per-pupil spending (South Carolina districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
7,925
Total Enrollment
14
Schools
$14,030
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Cherokee 01 operates 14 public schools serving 7,925 students, placing it among the smaller districts in South Carolina. The school portfolio breaks down into 8 combined, 3 middle, 2 high, 1 elementary schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Cherokee County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,030 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 74 South Carolina districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Carolina compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 38.3% local, 45.1% state, and 16.6% 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 51/100, ranked #36 of 73 in South Carolina against a state average of 51, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 2 of 14 schools offering Advanced Placement (22 AP courses district-wide), a 307.4:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 43.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 60.5% White, 24.1% African American, 9.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Luther L. Vaughan Elementary, with a diversity index of 67.2/100.
Its largest campus is Gaffney High, enrolling 1,827 students (24% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Draytonville Elementary, at 264 students, a 7x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Gaffney High accounts for 23.1% of all Cherokee 01 student enrollment
That concentration means Cherokee 01-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Cherokee 01 school enrollment varies 6.9× across entities
Cherokee 01 school enrollment ranges from 264 students (lowest) to 1,827 students (highest), a spread of 1,563 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.
Cherokee 01 has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 88.4% 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 a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Cherokee 01 student-counselor ratio is 307:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Cherokee 01 is typically wider than the Cherokee 01-aggregate figure suggests.
Cherokee 01 chronic absenteeism rate is 43.0% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.