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Hershey, Pennsylvania - 5 schools
An equity score of 48/100 ranks Derry Township Sd #336 of 648 districts in Pennsylvania (state average 49). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $18,583 per pupil, Derry Township Sd ranks #216 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending (Pennsylvania districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,165
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$18,583
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Derry Township Sd operates 5 public schools serving 3,165 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Pennsylvania. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 1 high, 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 Dauphin County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $18,583 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending. See how Pennsylvania compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 73.9% local, 18.8% state, and 7.3% 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 48/100, ranked #336 of 648 in Pennsylvania against a state average of 49, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (18 AP courses district-wide), a 367.2:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 23.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 64.1% White, 14.0% Asian, 9.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Hershey Early Childhood Ctr, with a diversity index of 58.8/100.
Its largest campus is Hershey Hs, enrolling 1,050 students (34% of the district's total enrollment).
Hershey Hs accounts for 33.2% of all Derry Township Sd student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Derry Township Sd-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.
Derry Township Sd school enrollment varies 2.5× across entities
Derry Township Sd school enrollment ranges from 420 students (lowest) to 1,050 students (highest), a spread of 630 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Derry Township Sd student-counselor ratio is 367:1 — 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.
Derry Township Sd chronic absenteeism rate is 23.4% — 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 Derry Township Sd is typically wider than the Derry Township Sd-aggregate figure suggests.