Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Whittier, California - 6 schools
An equity score of 28/100 ranks Lowell Joint #1289 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $12,708 per pupil, Lowell Joint ranks #1468 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,014
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$12,708
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Lowell Joint operates 6 public schools serving 3,014 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 5 elementary, 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 Los Angeles County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,708 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 33.5% local, 55.3% state, and 11.2% 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 28/100, ranked #1289 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.
a 687:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 19.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 70.8% Hispanic or Latino, 16.5% White, 5.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Macy Elementary, with a diversity index of 55.6/100.
Its largest campus is Rancho-Starbuck Intermediate, enrolling 687 students (23% of the district's total enrollment).
Rancho-Starbuck Intermediate accounts for 22.8% of all Lowell Joint student enrollment
That concentration means Lowell Joint-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: middle. 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.
Lowell Joint student-counselor ratio is 687:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.
Lowell Joint chronic absenteeism rate is 19.3% — 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 Lowell Joint is typically wider than the Lowell Joint-aggregate figure suggests.