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.
Gary, Texas - 1 schools
An equity score of 62/100 ranks Gary Isd #332 of 1044 districts in Texas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $12,756 per pupil, Gary Isd ranks #628 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending (Texas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
493
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$12,756
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Gary Isd operates 1 public schools serving 493 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Texas. The school portfolio breaks down into 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 Panola County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,756 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Texas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 24.8% local, 52.6% state, and 22.6% 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 #332 of 1044 in Texas against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 238:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 24.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 89.7% White, 8.0% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Gary School, enrolling 476 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Gary School accounts for 96.6% of all Gary Isd student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Gary Isd a distant remainder — means Gary Isd-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.
Gary Isd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 58.6% 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.
Gary Isd student-counselor ratio is 238:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Gary Isd chronic absenteeism rate is 24.8% — 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 Gary Isd is typically wider than the Gary Isd-aggregate figure suggests.