An equity score of 45/100 ranks Fort Benton Elem #47 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,145 per pupil, Fort Benton Elem ranks #346 of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
249
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$11,145
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Fort Benton Elem operates 2 public schools serving 249 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 Chouteau County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,145 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 36.9% local, 42.6% state, and 20.5% 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 45/100, ranked #47 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 103:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 19.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 86.7% White, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 0.3% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Fort Benton School, enrolling 162 students (79% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Fort Benton 7-8, at 44 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Fort Benton School accounts for 65.1% of all Fort Benton Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Fort Benton Elem a distant remainder — means Fort Benton Elem-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
Fort Benton Elem student-counselor ratio is 103:1 — 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.
Fort Benton Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 19.4% — 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 Fort Benton Elem is typically wider than the Fort Benton Elem-aggregate figure suggests.