Hillsborough

District-Level NCES Analysis

Hillsborough operates 301 public schools serving 224,538 students, placing it among the largest districts in Florida. The school portfolio breaks down into 179 combined, 44 middle, 42 elementary, 36 high schools, giving families in a major system a clear picture of grade-band coverage across a large portfolio before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Hillsborough County.

Per-pupil expenditure runs $9,835 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 7 of 67 Florida districts by per-pupil spending. See how Florida compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 43.2% local, 40.7% state, and 16.1% 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 32/100, ranked #56 of 67 in Florida against a state average of 51, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.

Academic infrastructure includes 35 of 301 schools offering Advanced Placement (566 AP courses district-wide), a 454.4:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 37.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 40.9% Hispanic or Latino, 25.3% White, 24.2% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Benito Middle School, with a diversity index of 77.9/100.

Its largest campus is Florida Connections Academy, enrolling 5,748 students (3% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Hillsborough Virtual Franchise High School, at 3 students, a 1916x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.