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.
Buffalo, South Dakota - 5 schools
An equity score of 69/100 ranks Harding County School District 31-1 #25 of 121 districts in South Dakota (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $17,270 per pupil, Harding County School District 31-1 ranks #21 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (South Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
224
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$17,270
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Harding County School District 31-1 operates 5 public schools serving 224 students, placing it among the smallest districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 1 high, 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 Harding County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $17,270 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 66.6% local, 18.4% state, and 15.0% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 69/100, ranked #25 of 121 in South Dakota against a state average of 51, 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 (4 AP courses district-wide), a 73:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 16.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 97.8% White, 0.3% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Buffalo Elementary - 02, with a diversity index of 9.6/100.
Its largest campus is Buffalo Elementary - 02, enrolling 101 students (42% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Camp Crook Elementary - 08, at 8 students, a 13x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Buffalo Elementary - 02 accounts for 41.6% of all Harding County School District 31-1 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Harding County School District 31-1-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.
Harding County School District 31-1 school enrollment varies 13× across entities
Harding County School District 31-1 school enrollment ranges from 8 students (lowest) to 101 students (highest), a spread of 93 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Harding County School District 31-1 student-counselor ratio is 73:1 — 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.
Harding County School District 31-1 chronic absenteeism rate is 16.4% — 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 Harding County School District 31-1 is typically wider than the Harding County School District 31-1-aggregate figure suggests.
Comparisons are relative to Harding County School District 31-1's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in South Dakota
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.