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Alturas, California - 6 schools
An equity score of 59/100 ranks Modoc Joint Unified #522 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,587 per pupil, Modoc Joint Unified ranks #1073 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
832
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$14,587
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Modoc Joint Unified operates 6 public schools serving 832 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 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 Modoc County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,587 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 31.5% local, 52.8% state, and 15.7% 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 59/100, ranked #522 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 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (2 AP courses district-wide), a 197:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 41.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 60.9% White, 25.3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Warner High, with a diversity index of 63.8/100.
Its largest campus is Alturas Elementary, enrolling 333 students (43% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is High Desert Community Day, at 3 students, a 111x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Alturas Elementary accounts for 40.0% of all Modoc Joint Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Modoc Joint 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.
Modoc Joint Unified school enrollment varies 111× across entities
Modoc Joint Unified school enrollment ranges from 3 students (lowest) to 333 students (highest), a spread of 330 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.
Modoc Joint Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 67.6% 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 approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. 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.
Modoc Joint Unified student-counselor ratio is 197:1 — 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.
Modoc Joint Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 41.2% — 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.