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Colton, California - 27 schools
An equity score of 70/100 ranks Colton Joint Unified #262 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,590 per pupil, Colton Joint Unified ranks #619 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
19,297
Total Enrollment
27
Schools
$16,590
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Colton Joint Unified operates 27 public schools serving 19,297 students, placing it in the mid-size range in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 18 elementary, 4 high, 4 middle, 1 combined schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in San Bernardino County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,590 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 20.0% local, 68.2% state, and 11.8% 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 70/100, ranked #262 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 3 of 27 schools offering Advanced Placement (50 AP courses district-wide), a 454.1:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 52.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.5% Hispanic or Latino, 5.7% African American, 3.9% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Terrace View Elementary, with a diversity index of 43.5/100.
Its largest campus is Bloomington High, enrolling 1,794 students (10% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Washington High, at 126 students, a 14x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Colton Joint Unified school enrollment varies 14× across entities
Colton Joint Unified school enrollment ranges from 126 students (lowest) to 1,794 students (highest), a spread of 1,668 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Colton Joint Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 70.7% 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.
Colton Joint Unified student-counselor ratio is 454:1 — 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.
Colton Joint Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 52.4% — 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.