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Murdo, South Dakota - 3 schools
At $15,273 per pupil, Jones County School District 37-3 ranks #33 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (South Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
184
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$15,273
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Jones County School District 37-3 operates 3 public schools serving 184 students, placing it among the smallest districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 1 high 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 Jones County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,273 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 50.4% local, 25.2% state, and 24.3% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 120:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 27.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 80.3% White, 1.1% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Jones County Elementary - 02, with a diversity index of 35.7/100.
Its largest campus is Jones County Elementary - 02, enrolling 74 students (41% of the district's total enrollment).
Jones County Elementary - 02 accounts for 40.2% of all Jones County School District 37-3 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Jones County School District 37-3-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Jones County School District 37-3 student-counselor ratio is 120:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Jones County School District 37-3 chronic absenteeism rate is 27.8% — 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 Jones County School District 37-3 is typically wider than the Jones County School District 37-3-aggregate figure suggests.
Comparisons are relative to Jones County School District 37-3's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in South Dakota
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.