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Fortuna, California - 4 schools
An equity score of 62/100 ranks Fortuna Elementary #451 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,612 per pupil, Fortuna Elementary ranks #1063 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,104
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$14,612
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Fortuna Elementary operates 4 public schools serving 1,104 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 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 Humboldt County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,612 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 25.4% local, 59.3% state, and 15.3% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 62/100, ranked #451 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 379.3:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 27.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 45.0% White, 41.6% Hispanic or Latino, 1.0% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Fortuna Middle, with a diversity index of 64.4/100.
Norman G. Ambrosini Elementary accounts for 25.5% of all Fortuna Elementary student enrollment
That concentration means Fortuna Elementary-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Fortuna Elementary has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 71.7% 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). Eligibility here is approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. 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.
Fortuna Elementary student-counselor ratio is 379:1 — 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.
Fortuna Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 27.4% — 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 Fortuna Elementary is typically wider than the Fortuna Elementary-aggregate figure suggests.