An equity score of 75/100 ranks Mendocino Unified #176 of 1526 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $28,262 per pupil, Mendocino Unified ranks #117 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
462
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$28,262
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Mendocino Unified operates 6 public schools serving 462 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 2 high, 1 combined 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 Mendocino County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $28,262 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 188 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 73.3% local, 22.2% state, and 4.5% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 75/100, ranked #176 of 1526 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.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (6 AP courses district-wide), a 365.9:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 49.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 72.8% White, 13.9% Hispanic or Latino, 2.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Albion Elementary, with a diversity index of 62.8/100.
Its largest campus is Mendocino K-8, enrolling 241 students (54% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Mendocino Sunrise High, at 7 students, a 34x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Mendocino K-8 accounts for 52.2% of all Mendocino Unified student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Mendocino Unified a distant remainder — means Mendocino Unified-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.
Mendocino Unified school enrollment varies 34× across entities
Mendocino Unified school enrollment ranges from 7 students (lowest) to 241 students (highest), a spread of 234 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.
The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. 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.
Mendocino Unified student-counselor ratio is 366:1 — 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.
Mendocino Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 49.5% — 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.