Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Fairfield, Montana - 2 schools
An equity score of 31/100 ranks Fairfield Elem #90 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $10,888 per pupil, Fairfield Elem ranks #357 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
207
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$10,888
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Fairfield Elem operates 2 public schools serving 207 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 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 Teton County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $10,888 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 40 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 42.5% local, 39.8% state, and 17.8% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 31/100, ranked #90 of 141 in Montana against a state average of 38, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 110:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 21.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 97.5% White, 0.3% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Fairfield Elementary School, enrolling 173 students (79% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Fairfield 7-8, at 47 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Fairfield Elementary School accounts for 78.6% of all Fairfield Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Fairfield Elem a distant remainder — means Fairfield Elem-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.
Fairfield Elem student-counselor ratio is 110:1 — 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.
Fairfield Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 21.4% — 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 Fairfield Elem is typically wider than the Fairfield Elem-aggregate figure suggests.