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.
Hughson, California - 6 schools
An equity score of 47/100 ranks Hughson Unified #840 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,823 per pupil, Hughson Unified ranks #1006 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
2,157
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$14,823
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Hughson Unified operates 6 public schools serving 2,157 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 high, 2 elementary, 1 middle, 1 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 Stanislaus County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,823 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 33.5% local, 54.2% state, and 12.3% 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 47/100, ranked #840 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (10 AP courses district-wide), a 448.7:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 20.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 63.4% Hispanic or Latino, 34.7% White, 0.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Hughson High, with a diversity index of 54.5/100.
Its largest campus is Hughson High, enrolling 859 students (38% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Valley Community Day, at 4 students, a 215x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Hughson High accounts for 38.4% of all Hughson Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Hughson Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Hughson Unified school enrollment varies 215× across entities
Hughson Unified school enrollment ranges from 4 students (lowest) to 859 students (highest), a spread of 855 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Hughson Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 51.7% 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.
Hughson Unified student-counselor ratio is 449:1 — 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.
Hughson Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 20.6% — 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 Hughson Unified is typically wider than the Hughson Unified-aggregate figure suggests.