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Laton, California - 4 schools
An equity score of 81/100 ranks Laton Joint Unified #82 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $17,651 per pupil, Laton Joint Unified ranks #434 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
628
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$17,651
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Laton Joint Unified operates 4 public schools serving 628 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 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 Fresno County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $17,651 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 20.6% local, 62.0% state, and 17.3% 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 81/100, ranked #82 of 1517 in California 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 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (3 AP courses district-wide), a 149.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 22.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 80.3% Hispanic or Latino, 18.1% White, 0.6% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Laton Online Academy, with a diversity index of 48.6/100.
Its largest campus is Laton Elementary, enrolling 274 students (45% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Laton Online Academy, at 12 students, a 23x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Laton Elementary accounts for 43.6% of all Laton Joint Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Laton Joint Unified-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.
Laton Joint Unified school enrollment varies 23× across entities
Laton Joint Unified school enrollment ranges from 12 students (lowest) to 274 students (highest), a spread of 262 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Laton Joint Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 70.1% 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 approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. 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.
Laton Joint Unified student-counselor ratio is 150:1 — 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.
Laton Joint Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 22.5% — 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 Laton Joint Unified is typically wider than the Laton Joint Unified-aggregate figure suggests.