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Garfield Heights, Ohio - 5 schools
An equity score of 51/100 ranks Garfield Heights City Schools #321 of 806 districts in Ohio (state average 46). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,703 per pupil, Garfield Heights City Schools ranks #352 of 966 Ohio districts by per-pupil spending (Ohio districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,138
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$14,703
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Garfield Heights City Schools operates 5 public schools serving 3,138 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Ohio. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 1 high, 1 middle, 1 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 Cuyahoga County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,703 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 966 Ohio districts by per-pupil spending. See how Ohio compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 40.8% local, 43.0% state, and 16.2% 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 51/100, ranked #321 of 806 in Ohio against a state average of 46, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (2 AP courses district-wide), a 336.5:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 76.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 82.4% African American, 6.2% White, 0.7% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is William Foster Elementary School, with a diversity index of 36.1/100.
Its largest campus is Garfield Heights High School, enrolling 942 students (36% of the district's total enrollment).
Garfield Heights High School accounts for 30.0% of all Garfield Heights City Schools student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Garfield Heights City Schools-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Garfield Heights City Schools school enrollment varies 2.9× across entities
Garfield Heights City Schools school enrollment ranges from 326 students (lowest) to 942 students (highest), a spread of 616 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Garfield Heights City Schools student-counselor ratio is 337:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Garfield Heights City Schools is typically wider than the Garfield Heights City Schools-aggregate figure suggests.
Garfield Heights City Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 76.4% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Comparisons are relative to Garfield Heights City Schools's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Ohio
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.