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Chester, Pennsylvania - 7 schools
An equity score of 80/100 ranks Chester-Upland Sd #42 of 648 districts in Pennsylvania (state average 49). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $20,841 per pupil, Chester-Upland Sd ranks #100 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending (Pennsylvania districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,100
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$20,841
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Chester-Upland Sd operates 7 public schools serving 3,100 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Pennsylvania. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 combined, 2 elementary, 1 high 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 Delaware County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $20,841 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending. See how Pennsylvania compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 18.3% local, 74.2% state, and 7.6% 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 80/100, ranked #42 of 648 in Pennsylvania against a state average of 49, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (4 AP courses district-wide), a 260.7:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 54.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 81.9% African American, 11.4% Hispanic or Latino, 2.4% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Main Street Sch, with a diversity index of 40.5/100.
Its largest campus is Chester Hs, enrolling 806 students (27% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Stetser El Sch, at 251 students, a 3x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Chester Hs accounts for 26.0% of all Chester-Upland Sd student enrollment
That concentration means Chester-Upland Sd-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.
Chester-Upland Sd school enrollment varies 3.2× across entities
Chester-Upland Sd school enrollment ranges from 251 students (lowest) to 806 students (highest), a spread of 555 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-Upland Sd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 97.5% 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.
Chester-Upland Sd student-counselor ratio is 261:1 — 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 Chester-Upland Sd is typically wider than the Chester-Upland Sd-aggregate figure suggests.
Chester-Upland Sd chronic absenteeism rate is 54.0% — 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.