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Essex, Iowa - 2 schools
An equity score of 76/100 ranks Essex Comm School District #35 of 303 districts in Iowa (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,535 per pupil, Essex Comm School District ranks #37 of 327 Iowa districts by per-pupil spending (Iowa districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
206
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$14,535
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Essex Comm School District operates 2 public schools serving 206 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Iowa. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined 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 Page County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,535 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 327 Iowa districts by per-pupil spending. See how Iowa compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 53.0% local, 36.0% state, and 11.0% 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 76/100, ranked #35 of 303 in Iowa against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 134.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 28.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 89.3% White, 7.0% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Essex Elementary School, enrolling 101 students (54% of the district's total enrollment).
Essex Elementary School accounts for 49.0% of all Essex Comm School District student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Essex Comm School District a distant remainder — means Essex Comm School District-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.
Essex Comm School District has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 50.1% 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.
Essex Comm School District student-counselor ratio is 135:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Essex Comm School District chronic absenteeism rate is 28.0% — 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 Essex Comm School District is typically wider than the Essex Comm School District-aggregate figure suggests.