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Gustine, California - 5 schools
An equity score of 65/100 ranks Gustine Unified #384 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,725 per pupil, Gustine Unified ranks #1022 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,746
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$14,725
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Gustine Unified operates 5 public schools serving 1,746 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 high, 2 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 Merced County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,725 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 16.5% local, 70.6% state, and 12.8% 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 65/100, ranked #384 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.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (10 AP courses district-wide), a 290.7:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 45.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 89.4% Hispanic or Latino, 6.1% White, 0.9% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Gustine High, with a diversity index of 27.9/100.
Its largest campus is Gustine High, enrolling 531 students (33% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Pioneer High (Continuation), at 18 students, a 30x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Gustine High accounts for 30.4% of all Gustine Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Gustine Unified-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.
Gustine Unified school enrollment varies 30× across entities
Gustine Unified school enrollment ranges from 18 students (lowest) to 531 students (highest), a spread of 513 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Gustine Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 73.0% 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.
Gustine Unified student-counselor ratio is 291:1 — 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 Gustine Unified is typically wider than the Gustine Unified-aggregate figure suggests.
Gustine Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 45.4% — 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.