At $21,284 per pupil, El Nido Elementary ranks #344 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
148
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$21,284
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
El Nido Elementary operates 1 public schools serving 148 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. 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 Merced County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $21,284 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 39.7% local, 47.7% state, and 12.6% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
and 18.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 88.5% Hispanic or Latino, 10.3% White, 1.3% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is El Nido Elementary, enrolling 156 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
El Nido Elementary accounts for 100.0% of all El Nido Elementary student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of El Nido Elementary a distant remainder — means El Nido Elementary-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.
El Nido Elementary reports 80.4% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share is at least 75%, indicating a high concentration of measured economic need. 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.
El Nido Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 18.6% — 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 El Nido Elementary is typically wider than the El Nido Elementary-aggregate figure suggests.