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Cherokee, Kansas - 3 schools
An equity score of 87/100 ranks Cherokee #4 of 250 districts in Kansas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $17,279 per pupil, Cherokee ranks #57 of 285 Kansas districts by per-pupil spending (Kansas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
458
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$17,279
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Cherokee operates 3 public schools serving 458 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Kansas. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 high, 1 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 Crawford County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $17,279 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 285 Kansas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Kansas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 19.4% local, 72.8% state, and 7.8% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 87/100, ranked #4 of 250 in Kansas 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 (1 AP courses district-wide), a 235.3:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 15.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 86.8% White, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 1.6% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Southeast High, with a diversity index of 25.1/100.
Its largest campus is Southeast High, enrolling 152 students (35% of the district's total enrollment).
Southeast High accounts for 33.2% of all Cherokee student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Cherokee-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 has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 63.1% 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 approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. 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 student-counselor ratio is 235:1 — 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.
Cherokee chronic absenteeism rate is 15.8% — 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 Cherokee is typically wider than the Cherokee-aggregate figure suggests.