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
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Providence, Rhode Island - 2 schools
An equity score of 77/100 ranks Highlander #4 of 53 districts in Rhode Island (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $19,094 per pupil, Highlander ranks #34 of 60 Rhode Island districts by per-pupil spending (Rhode Island districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
617
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$19,094
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Highlander operates 2 public schools serving 617 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Rhode Island. 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 Providence County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,094 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 60 Rhode Island districts by per-pupil spending. See how Rhode Island compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 22.2% local, 51.8% state, and 26.1% 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 77/100, ranked #4 of 53 in Rhode Island against a state average of 51, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 168.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 59.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 50.8% Hispanic or Latino, 26.4% African American, 16.6% White across the district's schools.
Highlander Secondary Charter S accounts for 55.1% of all Highlander student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Highlander a distant remainder — means Highlander-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.
Highlander has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 69.4% 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.
Highlander student-counselor ratio is 169:1 — 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.
Highlander chronic absenteeism rate is 59.3% — 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.