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Delano, California - 4 schools
An equity score of 74/100 ranks Delano Joint Union High #174 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $17,475 per pupil, Delano Joint Union High ranks #462 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
4,142
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$17,475
Per-Pupil Spending
High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Delano Joint Union High operates 4 public schools serving 4,142 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 high 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 Kern County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $17,475 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 20.1% local, 68.9% state, and 11.0% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 74/100, ranked #174 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 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (29 AP courses district-wide), a 231.8:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 43.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 90.7% Hispanic or Latino, 6.8% Asian, 1.6% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Cesar E. Chavez High, with a diversity index of 22.1/100.
Its largest campus is Robert F. Kennedy High, enrolling 1,394 students (35% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Valley High, at 71 students, a 20x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Robert F. Kennedy High accounts for 33.7% of all Delano Joint Union High student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Delano Joint Union High-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.
Delano Joint Union High school enrollment varies 20× across entities
Delano Joint Union High school enrollment ranges from 71 students (lowest) to 1,394 students (highest), a spread of 1,323 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Delano Joint Union High has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 83.5% 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). Areas above 75% eligibility — including this one — receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. 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.
Delano Joint Union High student-counselor ratio is 232:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Delano Joint Union High chronic absenteeism rate is 43.8% — 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.
Delano Joint Union High has 4 schools, including 4 high. Total enrollment is 4,142 students.
How much does Delano Joint Union High spend per student?
Delano Joint Union High spends $17,475 per student. The district has an equity score of 74/100, ranking #174 in California.
What is the demographic composition of Delano Joint Union High?
Delano Joint Union High students are 90.7% Hispanic or Latino, 6.8% Asian, 1.6% White, 0.7% African American, averaged across 4 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.
What is the equity score for Delano Joint Union High?
Delano Joint Union High has an equity score of 74/100, ranking #174 out of 1517 districts in California.