At $25,467 per pupil, Lima K-12 Schools ranks #82 of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
60
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$25,467
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Lima K-12 Schools operates 3 public schools serving 60 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high, 1 middle 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 Beaverhead County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $25,467 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 41.0% local, 39.5% state, and 19.5% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 41.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 33.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 90.2% White, 3.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Lima 7-8, with a diversity index of 32.0/100.
Its largest campus is Lima School, enrolling 21 students (54% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Lima 7-8, at 5 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Lima School accounts for 35.0% of all Lima K-12 Schools student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Lima K-12 Schools-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. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.
Lima K-12 Schools school enrollment varies 4.2× across entities
Lima K-12 Schools school enrollment ranges from 5 students (lowest) to 21 students (highest), a spread of 16 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.
Lima K-12 Schools student-counselor ratio is 42:1 — 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.
Lima K-12 Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 33.4% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.