At $16,402 per pupil, Lidgerwood 28 ranks #98 of 168 North Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (North Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
184
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$16,402
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Lidgerwood 28 operates 2 public schools serving 184 students, placing it among the smallest districts in North Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 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 Richland County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,402 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 168 North Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how North Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 26.6% local, 60.6% state, and 12.7% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
a 146.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 18.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.6% White, 6.0% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Lidgerwood Elementary School, enrolling 100 students (57% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses fell 2.2% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (184 to 180 students), and the student-teacher ratio held roughly steady, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $3,316,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 43.2% went to instruction, 41% to support services, and 5% to capital outlay, support-services-heavy relative to typical districts, reflecting spending on transportation, administration, or student services. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Lidgerwood Elementary School accounts for 54.3% of all Lidgerwood 28 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Lidgerwood 28 a distant remainder — means Lidgerwood 28-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Lidgerwood 28 student-counselor ratio is 147:1 — 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.
Lidgerwood 28 chronic absenteeism rate is 18.1% — 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 Lidgerwood 28 is typically wider than the Lidgerwood 28-aggregate figure suggests.