At $24,390 per pupil, Discovery Charter School ranks #383 of 648 New Jersey districts by per-pupil spending (New Jersey districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
105
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$24,390
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Discovery Charter School operates 1 public schools serving 105 students, placing it among the smallest districts in New Jersey. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary 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 Essex County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $24,390 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 648 New Jersey districts by per-pupil spending. See how New Jersey compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 65.8% local, 9.7% state, and 24.5% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 495:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 18.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 81.8% African American, 17.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Discovery Charter School, enrolling 99 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Discovery Charter School accounts for 94.3% of all Discovery Charter School student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Discovery Charter School a distant remainder — means Discovery Charter School-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Discovery Charter School reports 62.9% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Discovery Charter School student-counselor ratio is 495:1 — 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.
Discovery Charter School chronic absenteeism rate is 18.2% — 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 Discovery Charter School is typically wider than the Discovery Charter School-aggregate figure suggests.