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Lompoc, California - 16 schools
An equity score of 55/100 ranks Lompoc Unified #627 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,651 per pupil, Lompoc Unified ranks #1047 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
9,061
Total Enrollment
16
Schools
$14,651
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Lompoc Unified operates 16 public schools serving 9,061 students, placing it among the smaller districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 10 elementary, 3 high, 2 middle, 1 combined schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Santa Barbara County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,651 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 25.4% local, 62.9% state, and 11.7% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 55/100, ranked #627 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 2 of 16 schools offering Advanced Placement (22 AP courses district-wide), a 405.8:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 44.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 70.5% Hispanic or Latino, 18.8% White, 2.1% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Crestview Elementary, with a diversity index of 71.2/100.
Its largest campus is Lompoc High, enrolling 1,593 students (18% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Dr Bob Forinash Community Day, at 31 students, a 51x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Lompoc High accounts for 17.6% of all Lompoc Unified student enrollment
That concentration means Lompoc 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.
Lompoc Unified school enrollment varies 51× across entities
Lompoc Unified school enrollment ranges from 31 students (lowest) to 1,593 students (highest), a spread of 1,562 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme enrollment heterogeneity, the district operates both small specialty programs and large comprehensive campuses inside a single budgeting unit. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Lompoc Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 57.2% 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.
Lompoc Unified student-counselor ratio is 406:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Lompoc Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 44.6% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.