Elk Mountain School District 16-2 operates 2 public schools serving 11 students, placing it among the smaller districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 other, 1 high schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage before they move, rent, or enrol. Aggregated across those campuses, enrollment totals 16 pupils using the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is geographically located in Custer County County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $32,727 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, which aggregates every revenue and spending line reported under federal accounting standards. The funding mix is 67.9% local, 0.7% state, and 31.4% federal — a breakdown that matters because districts leaning heavily on local revenue are more exposed to property-tax swings, while higher federal shares typically track Title I concentration.
and 7.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 100.0% White across the district's schools.
Elk Mountain Elementary - 01 accounts for 87.5% of all Elk Mountain School District 16-2 student enrollment
That concentration — well above the 8.4% national median for largest-entity share — means Elk Mountain School District 16-2-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: other. 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.
Elk Mountain School District 16-2 chronic absenteeism rate is 7.1% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.