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Columbia Falls, Montana - 2 schools
At $8,657 per pupil, Deer Park Elem ranks #392 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
199
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$8,657
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Deer Park Elem operates 2 public schools serving 199 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 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 Flathead County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $8,657 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 40 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 24.2% local, 62.8% state, and 13.0% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
a 140:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 33.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.4% White, 1.6% Hispanic or Latino, 1.1% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Deer Park School, enrolling 120 students (71% of the district's total enrollment).
Deer Park School accounts for 60.3% of all Deer Park Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Deer Park Elem a distant remainder — means Deer Park Elem-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.
Deer Park Elem student-counselor ratio is 140:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Deer Park Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 33.1% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Deer Park Elem has 2 schools, including 1 combined, 1 middle. Total enrollment is 199 students.
How much does Deer Park Elem spend per student?
Deer Park Elem spends $8,657 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Deer Park Elem?
Deer Park Elem students are 94.4% White, 1.6% Hispanic or Latino, 1.1% African American, averaged across 2 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.