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Linden, California - 6 schools
An equity score of 36/100 ranks Linden Unified #1117 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,668 per pupil, Linden Unified ranks #1285 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
2,277
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$13,668
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Linden Unified operates 6 public schools serving 2,277 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 elementary, 2 high 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 San Joaquin County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,668 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 29.6% local, 58.6% state, and 11.8% 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 36/100, ranked #1117 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (8 AP courses district-wide), a 247.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 17.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 68.7% Hispanic or Latino, 25.3% White, 1.5% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Waterloo Elementary, with a diversity index of 54.6/100.
Its largest campus is Linden High, enrolling 743 students (32% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Pride Continuation, at 27 students, a 28x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Linden High accounts for 31.8% of all Linden Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Linden Unified-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.
Linden Unified school enrollment varies 28× across entities
Linden Unified school enrollment ranges from 27 students (lowest) to 743 students (highest), a spread of 716 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.
Linden Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 59.4% 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). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. 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.
Linden Unified student-counselor ratio is 248:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Linden Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 17.9% — 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 Linden Unified is typically wider than the Linden Unified-aggregate figure suggests.