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Dawson Springs, Kentucky - 2 schools
An equity score of 55/100 ranks Dawson Springs Independent #71 of 171 districts in Kentucky (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $12,713 per pupil, Dawson Springs Independent ranks #92 of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending (Kentucky districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
534
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$12,713
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Dawson Springs Independent operates 2 public schools serving 534 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Kentucky. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined 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 Hopkins County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,713 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending. See how Kentucky compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 17.3% local, 68.5% state, and 14.2% 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 55/100, ranked #71 of 171 in Kentucky against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 2 schools offering Advanced Placement (4 AP courses district-wide), a 631:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 19.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 92.8% White, 1.9% Hispanic or Latino, 0.6% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Dawson Springs Elementary, enrolling 342 students (54% of the district's total enrollment).
Dawson Springs Elementary accounts for 54.2% of all Dawson Springs Independent student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Dawson Springs Independent a distant remainder — means Dawson Springs Independent-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
Dawson Springs Independent has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 65.7% 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.
Dawson Springs Independent student-counselor ratio is 631:1 — 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.
Dawson Springs Independent chronic absenteeism rate is 19.8% — 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 Dawson Springs Independent is typically wider than the Dawson Springs Independent-aggregate figure suggests.