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Kennett, Missouri - 5 schools
An equity score of 54/100 ranks Kennett 39 #183 of 432 districts in Missouri (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $10,475 per pupil, Kennett 39 ranks #422 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,864
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$10,475
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Kennett 39 operates 5 public schools serving 1,864 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 1 high, 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 Dunklin County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $10,475 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 26.6% local, 31.6% state, and 41.8% 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 54/100, ranked #183 of 432 in Missouri 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 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (5 AP courses district-wide), a 249.1:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 18.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 53.7% White, 31.0% African American, 9.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is H. Byron Masterson Elem., with a diversity index of 65.0/100.
Its largest campus is Kennett High, enrolling 493 students (27% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Early Childhood Ctr., at 85 students, a 6x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Kennett High accounts for 26.4% of all Kennett 39 student enrollment
That concentration means Kennett 39-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.
Kennett 39 school enrollment varies 5.8× across entities
Kennett 39 school enrollment ranges from 85 students (lowest) to 493 students (highest), a spread of 408 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.
Kennett 39 has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 98.8% 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). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Kennett 39 student-counselor ratio is 249:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Kennett 39 chronic absenteeism rate is 18.6% — 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 Kennett 39 is typically wider than the Kennett 39-aggregate figure suggests.