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Chester, South Dakota - 7 schools
An equity score of 19/100 ranks Chester Area School District 39-1 #120 of 121 districts in South Dakota (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $9,721 per pupil, Chester Area School District 39-1 ranks #143 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (South Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
576
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$9,721
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Chester Area School District 39-1 operates 7 public schools serving 576 students, placing it among the smallest districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 high, 2 elementary, 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 $9,721 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 15 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 55.3% local, 32.0% state, and 12.7% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 19/100, ranked #120 of 121 in South Dakota against a state average of 51, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 103:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 12.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 96.7% White, 1.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Chester Middle School - 03, with a diversity index of 14.1/100.
Its largest campus is Chester Elementary -02, enrolling 154 students (26% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Graceville Colony - 07, at 23 students, a 7x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Chester Elementary -02 accounts for 26.5% of all Chester Area School District 39-1 student enrollment
That concentration means Chester Area School District 39-1-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.
Chester Area School District 39-1 school enrollment varies 6.7× across entities
Chester Area School District 39-1 school enrollment ranges from 23 students (lowest) to 154 students (highest), a spread of 131 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.
Chester Area School District 39-1 student-counselor ratio is 103:1 — 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.
Chester Area School District 39-1 chronic absenteeism rate is 12.5% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Comparisons are relative to Chester Area School District 39-1's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in South Dakota
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.