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Belle, Missouri - 3 schools
An equity score of 46/100 ranks Maries Co. R-Ii #252 of 432 districts in Missouri (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $9,486 per pupil, Maries Co. R-Ii ranks #532 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
730
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$9,486
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Maries Co. R-Ii operates 3 public schools serving 730 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high, 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 Maries County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $9,486 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 55 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 48.0% local, 32.3% state, and 19.6% 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 46/100, ranked #252 of 432 in Missouri against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 226.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 20.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 96.2% White, 0.6% Hispanic or Latino, 0.4% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Maries Co. Middle, with a diversity index of 9.0/100.
Its largest campus is Belle Elem., enrolling 259 students (38% of the district's total enrollment).
Belle Elem. accounts for 35.5% of all Maries Co. R-Ii student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Maries Co. R-Ii-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
Maries Co. R-Ii has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 75.2% 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 — including this one — 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.
Maries Co. R-Ii student-counselor ratio is 227:1 — 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.
Maries Co. R-Ii chronic absenteeism rate is 20.9% — 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 Maries Co. R-Ii is typically wider than the Maries Co. R-Ii-aggregate figure suggests.