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Imperial, California - 6 schools
An equity score of 38/100 ranks Imperial Unified #1067 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,369 per pupil, Imperial Unified ranks #1359 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
4,540
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$13,369
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Imperial Unified operates 6 public schools serving 4,540 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 2 high, 1 middle 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 $13,369 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 21.5% local, 67.3% state, and 11.2% 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 38/100, ranked #1067 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (7 AP courses district-wide), a 518.9:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 19.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 90.7% Hispanic or Latino, 7.5% White, 0.9% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Imperial High, with a diversity index of 20.5/100.
Its largest campus is Imperial High, enrolling 1,439 students (30% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Imperial Ave. Holbrook High, at 28 students, a 51x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Imperial High accounts for 30.0% of all Imperial Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Imperial 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.
Imperial Unified school enrollment varies 51× across entities
Imperial Unified school enrollment ranges from 28 students (lowest) to 1,439 students (highest), a spread of 1,411 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme enrollment heterogeneity, the district operates both small specialty programs and large comprehensive campuses inside a single budgeting unit. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Imperial Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 51.6% 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.
Imperial Unified student-counselor ratio is 519:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.
Imperial Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 19.3% — 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 Imperial Unified is typically wider than the Imperial Unified-aggregate figure suggests.