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Mendota, California - 7 schools
An equity score of 66/100 ranks Mendota Unified #362 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,236 per pupil, Mendota Unified ranks #1155 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,920
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$14,236
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Mendota Unified operates 7 public schools serving 3,920 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 2 high, 1 middle, 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 Fresno County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,236 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 14.4% local, 72.5% state, and 13.2% 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 66/100, ranked #362 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.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (8 AP courses district-wide), a 483.5:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 38.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 98.5% Hispanic or Latino, 1.1% White, 0.2% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Mendota Continuation High, with a diversity index of 8.0/100.
Its largest campus is Mendota High, enrolling 1,065 students (27% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Mendota Community Day, at 10 students, a 107x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Mendota High accounts for 26.8% of all Mendota Unified student enrollment
That concentration means Mendota 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.
Mendota Unified school enrollment varies 107× across entities
Mendota Unified school enrollment ranges from 10 students (lowest) to 1,065 students (highest), a spread of 1,055 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Mendota Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 94.9% 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.
Mendota Unified student-counselor ratio is 484:1 — 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.
Mendota Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 38.4% — 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.