Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Cumberland, Rhode Island - 9 schools
An equity score of 18/100 ranks Cumberland #51 of 53 districts in Rhode Island (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,629 per pupil, Cumberland ranks #58 of 60 Rhode Island districts by per-pupil spending (Rhode Island districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
4,784
Total Enrollment
9
Schools
$15,629
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Cumberland operates 9 public schools serving 4,784 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Rhode Island. The school portfolio breaks down into 5 elementary, 2 middle, 1 high, 1 combined schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly 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 Providence County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,629 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 6 of 60 Rhode Island districts by per-pupil spending. See how Rhode Island compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 58.8% local, 31.7% state, and 9.5% 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 18/100, ranked #51 of 53 in Rhode Island against a state average of 51, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 9 schools offering Advanced Placement (18 AP courses district-wide), a 656.3:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 18.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 67.1% White, 15.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.2% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is B.F. Norton Elementary School, with a diversity index of 61.1/100.
Its largest campus is Cumberland High School, enrolling 1,428 students (29% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Cumberland Preschool Center, at 109 students, a 13x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Cumberland High School accounts for 29.5% of all Cumberland student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Cumberland-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.
Cumberland school enrollment varies 13× across entities
Cumberland school enrollment ranges from 109 students (lowest) to 1,428 students (highest), a spread of 1,319 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.
Cumberland student-counselor ratio is 656:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.
Cumberland chronic absenteeism rate is 18.6% — 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 Cumberland is typically wider than the Cumberland-aggregate figure suggests.