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Maricopa, California - 3 schools
An equity score of 77/100 ranks Maricopa Unified #142 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $23,281 per pupil, Maricopa Unified ranks #138 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
318
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$23,281
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Maricopa Unified operates 3 public schools serving 318 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 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 Kern County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $23,281 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 187 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 42.3% local, 44.6% state, and 13.1% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 77/100, ranked #142 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 278.8:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 41.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 60.0% Hispanic or Latino, 36.9% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Maricopa Middle, with a diversity index of 54.0/100.
Its largest campus is Maricopa Elementary, enrolling 133 students (48% of the district's total enrollment).
Maricopa Elementary accounts for 41.8% of all Maricopa Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Maricopa Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Maricopa Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 96.9% 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). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Maricopa Unified student-counselor ratio is 279:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Maricopa Unified is typically wider than the Maricopa Unified-aggregate figure suggests.
Maricopa Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 41.8% — 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.