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Deep River, Connecticut - 1 schools
An equity score of 54/100 ranks Chester School District #73 of 174 districts in Connecticut (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $29,722 per pupil, Chester School District ranks #28 of 191 Connecticut districts by per-pupil spending (Connecticut districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
222
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$29,722
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Chester School District operates 1 public schools serving 222 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Connecticut. The school portfolio breaks down into 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 Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $29,722 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 191 Connecticut districts by per-pupil spending. See how Connecticut compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 68.5% local, 27.8% state, and 3.7% 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 54/100, ranked #73 of 174 in Connecticut against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 198:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 8.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.4% White, 8.6% Hispanic or Latino, 1.0% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Chester Elementary School, enrolling 198 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Chester Elementary School accounts for 89.2% of all Chester School District student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Chester School District a distant remainder — means Chester School District-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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 School District student-counselor ratio is 198:1 — 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.
Chester School District chronic absenteeism rate is 8.6% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 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.