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Helena, Arkansas - 2 schools
An equity score of 72/100 ranks Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. #36 of 250 districts in Arkansas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,123 per pupil, Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. ranks #43 of 255 Arkansas districts by per-pupil spending (Arkansas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,012
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$14,123
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. operates 2 public schools serving 1,012 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Arkansas. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 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 Phillips County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,123 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 255 Arkansas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Arkansas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 26.8% local, 42.4% state, and 30.8% 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 72/100, ranked #36 of 250 in Arkansas 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 2 schools offering Advanced Placement (7 AP courses district-wide), a 354.3:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 16.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 93.4% African American, 3.0% White, 1.1% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is J.F. Wahl Elementary School, enrolling 539 students (55% of the district's total enrollment).
J.F. Wahl Elementary School accounts for 53.3% of all Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. a distant remainder — means Helena/ W.Helena School Dist.-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.
Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 100.0% 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 a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. student-counselor ratio is 354:1 — 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.
Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. chronic absenteeism rate is 16.6% — 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 Helena/ W.Helena School Dist. is typically wider than the Helena/ W.Helena School Dist.-aggregate figure suggests.
Comparisons are relative to Helena/ W.Helena School Dist.'s own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Arkansas
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.