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Cambria, California - 4 schools
An equity score of 74/100 ranks Coast Unified #185 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $27,502 per pupil, Coast Unified ranks #83 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
488
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$27,502
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Coast Unified operates 4 public schools serving 488 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 high, 1 elementary, 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 San Luis Obispo County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $27,502 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 187 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 78.9% local, 15.9% state, and 5.2% 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 74/100, ranked #185 of 1517 in California 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 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (12 AP courses district-wide), a 368.4:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 25.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 73.2% Hispanic or Latino, 23.6% White, 0.6% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Leffingwell High (Continuation), with a diversity index of 48.0/100.
Its largest campus is Cambria Grammar, enrolling 202 students (42% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Leffingwell High (Continuation), at 5 students, a 40x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Cambria Grammar accounts for 41.4% of all Coast Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Coast Unified-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.
Coast Unified school enrollment varies 40× across entities
Coast Unified school enrollment ranges from 5 students (lowest) to 202 students (highest), a spread of 197 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme enrollment heterogeneity, the district operates both small specialty programs and large comprehensive campuses inside a single budgeting unit. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Coast Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 68.2% 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.
Coast Unified student-counselor ratio is 368:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Coast Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 25.1% — 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 Coast Unified is typically wider than the Coast Unified-aggregate figure suggests.