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Kearny, New Jersey - 7 schools
An equity score of 65/100 ranks Kearny #135 of 587 districts in New Jersey (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $23,937 per pupil, Kearny ranks #332 of 649 New Jersey districts by per-pupil spending (New Jersey districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
5,438
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$23,937
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Kearny operates 7 public schools serving 5,438 students, placing it among the smallest districts in New Jersey. The school portfolio breaks down into 5 combined, 1 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 Hudson County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $23,937 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 649 New Jersey districts by per-pupil spending. See how New Jersey compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 39.4% local, 54.5% state, and 6.2% 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 65/100, ranked #135 of 587 in New Jersey against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (17 AP courses district-wide), a 483.5:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 16.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 68.1% Hispanic or Latino, 24.7% White, 3.2% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Roosevelt Elementary School, with a diversity index of 57.4/100.
Its largest campus is Kearny High School, enrolling 1,825 students (34% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Roosevelt Elementary School, at 428 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Kearny High School accounts for 33.6% of all Kearny student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Kearny-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.
Kearny school enrollment varies 4.3× across entities
Kearny school enrollment ranges from 428 students (lowest) to 1,825 students (highest), a spread of 1,397 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Kearny student-counselor ratio is 484:1 — 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.
Kearny chronic absenteeism rate is 16.8% — 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 Kearny is typically wider than the Kearny-aggregate figure suggests.