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Kingsport, Tennessee - 12 schools
An equity score of 35/100 ranks Kingsport #75 of 140 districts in Tennessee (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,438 per pupil, Kingsport ranks #34 of 141 Tennessee districts by per-pupil spending (Tennessee districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
7,784
Total Enrollment
12
Schools
$11,438
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Kingsport operates 12 public schools serving 7,784 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Tennessee. The school portfolio breaks down into 6 combined, 3 elementary, 2 middle, 1 high schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Sullivan County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,438 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 141 Tennessee districts by per-pupil spending. See how Tennessee compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 50.2% local, 33.7% state, and 16.1% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 35/100, ranked #75 of 140 in Tennessee against a state average of 38, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 12 schools offering Advanced Placement (27 AP courses district-wide), a 423.1:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 21.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 75.7% White, 8.4% Hispanic or Latino, 4.7% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Andrew Jackson Elementary School, with a diversity index of 53.3/100.
Its largest campus is Dobyns - Bennett High School, enrolling 2,315 students (30% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Palmer Early Learning Center, at 152 students, a 15x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Dobyns - Bennett High School accounts for 29.7% of all Kingsport student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Kingsport-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.
Kingsport school enrollment varies 15× across entities
Kingsport school enrollment ranges from 152 students (lowest) to 2,315 students (highest), a spread of 2,163 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Kingsport student-counselor ratio is 423:1 — 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.
Kingsport chronic absenteeism rate is 21.8% — 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 Kingsport is typically wider than the Kingsport-aggregate figure suggests.