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Galata, Montana - 4 schools
At $9,986 per pupil, Liberty Elem ranks #374 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
71
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$9,986
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Liberty Elem operates 4 public schools serving 71 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 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 Liberty County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $9,986 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 40 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 11.2% local, 67.9% state, and 20.9% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
and 14.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 100.0% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Riverview Elementary, enrolling 19 students (36% of the district's total enrollment).
Riverview Elementary accounts for 26.8% of all Liberty Elem student enrollment
That concentration means Liberty Elem-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
Liberty Elem school enrollment varies 2.1× across entities
Liberty Elem school enrollment ranges from 9 students (lowest) to 19 students (highest), a spread of 10 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.
Liberty Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 14.2% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.