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Elkton, South Dakota - 5 schools
An equity score of 31/100 ranks Elkton School District 05-3 #100 of 121 districts in South Dakota (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,507 per pupil, Elkton School District 05-3 ranks #96 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (South Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
441
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$11,507
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Elkton School District 05-3 operates 5 public schools serving 441 students, placing it among the smallest districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 1 combined, 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 Brookings County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,507 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 75.0% local, 12.6% state, and 12.4% 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 31/100, ranked #100 of 121 in South Dakota against a state average of 51, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 394.9:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 16.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.7% White, 9.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Elkton High School - 01, with a diversity index of 38.5/100.
Its largest campus is Elkton Elementary - 02, enrolling 186 students (43% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Rolland Colony Elementary - 05, at 9 students, a 21x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Elkton Elementary - 02 accounts for 42.2% of all Elkton School District 05-3 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Elkton School District 05-3-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.
Elkton School District 05-3 school enrollment varies 21× across entities
Elkton School District 05-3 school enrollment ranges from 9 students (lowest) to 186 students (highest), a spread of 177 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Elkton School District 05-3 student-counselor ratio is 395:1 — 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.
Elkton School District 05-3 chronic absenteeism rate is 16.9% — 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 Elkton School District 05-3 is typically wider than the Elkton School District 05-3-aggregate figure suggests.