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Middlesboro, Kentucky - 5 schools
An equity score of 80/100 ranks Middlesboro Independent #17 of 171 districts in Kentucky (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,350 per pupil, Middlesboro Independent ranks #14 of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending (Kentucky districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,120
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$15,350
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Middlesboro Independent operates 5 public schools serving 1,120 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Kentucky. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 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 Bell County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,350 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 18 of 171 Kentucky districts by per-pupil spending. See how Kentucky compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 18.6% local, 44.6% state, and 36.7% 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 80/100, ranked #17 of 171 in Kentucky 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 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (6 AP courses district-wide), a 163.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 43.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 77.0% White, 14.3% African American, 1.7% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Middlesboro Group Home School, with a diversity index of 50.0/100.
Its largest campus is Middlesboro Elementary School, enrolling 514 students (44% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Middlesboro Group Home School, at 2 students, a 257x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Middlesboro Elementary School accounts for 44.0% of all Middlesboro Independent student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Middlesboro Independent-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.
Middlesboro Independent school enrollment varies 257× across entities
Middlesboro Independent school enrollment ranges from 2 students (lowest) to 514 students (highest), a spread of 512 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.
Middlesboro Independent has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 79.3% 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.
Middlesboro Independent student-counselor ratio is 164:1 — 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.
Middlesboro Independent chronic absenteeism rate is 43.9% — 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.