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Heber, California - 2 schools
An equity score of 76/100 ranks Heber Elementary #147 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $18,420 per pupil, Heber Elementary ranks #353 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,186
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$18,420
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Heber Elementary operates 2 public schools serving 1,186 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary 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 Imperial County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $18,420 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 13.2% local, 71.5% 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 76/100, ranked #147 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 440.3:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 2.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 98.3% Hispanic or Latino, 1.1% White, 0.1% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Dogwood Elementary, enrolling 606 students (52% of the district's total enrollment).
Dogwood Elementary accounts for 51.1% of all Heber Elementary student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Heber Elementary a distant remainder — means Heber 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.
Heber Elementary has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 59.7% 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). 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.
Heber Elementary student-counselor ratio is 440:1 — 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.
Heber Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 2.9% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 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.