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Dickinson, Texas - 18 schools
An equity score of 45/100 ranks Dickinson Isd #603 of 1044 districts in Texas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,708 per pupil, Dickinson Isd ranks #839 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending (Texas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
12,360
Total Enrollment
18
Schools
$11,708
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Dickinson Isd operates 18 public schools serving 12,360 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Texas. The school portfolio breaks down into 11 combined, 3 elementary, 2 middle, 2 high 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 Galveston County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,708 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Texas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 48.6% local, 36.5% state, and 14.9% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 45/100, ranked #603 of 1044 in Texas 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 18 schools offering Advanced Placement (21 AP courses district-wide), a 516.8:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 33.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 50.2% Hispanic or Latino, 29.9% White, 14.7% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Louis G Lobit El, with a diversity index of 70.0/100.
Its largest campus is Dickinson H S, enrolling 3,810 students (33% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Galveston Co J J a E P, at 1 students, a 3810x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Dickinson H S accounts for 30.8% of all Dickinson Isd student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Dickinson Isd-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.
Dickinson Isd school enrollment varies 3810× across entities
Dickinson Isd school enrollment ranges from 1 students (lowest) to 3,810 students (highest), a spread of 3,809 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Dickinson Isd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 59.1% 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 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.
Dickinson Isd student-counselor ratio is 517:1 — 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.
Dickinson Isd chronic absenteeism rate is 33.2% — 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.