At $21,019 per pupil, Loleta Union Elementary ranks #378 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
103
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$21,019
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Loleta Union Elementary operates 1 public schools serving 103 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary 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 Humboldt County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $21,019 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 19.9% local, 42.9% state, and 37.2% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 41:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 2.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 46.3% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Loleta Elementary, enrolling 82 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses fell 27.2% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (103 to 75 students), and the student-teacher ratio tightened by 5.6 students per teacher as staffing held steadier than enrollment, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $2,397,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 43.8% went to instruction, 41.6% to support services, and 1% 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.
Loleta Elementary accounts for 79.6% of all Loleta Union Elementary student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Loleta Union Elementary a distant remainder — means Loleta Union Elementary-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Loleta Union Elementary reports 85.4% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share is at least 75%, indicating a high concentration of measured economic need. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Loleta Union Elementary student-counselor ratio is 41:1 — 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.
Loleta Union Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 2.4% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 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.