At $24,497 per pupil, Mullen Public Schools ranks #29 of 244 Nebraska districts by per-pupil spending (Nebraska districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
163
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$24,497
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Mullen Public Schools operates 3 public schools serving 163 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Nebraska. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high, 1 middle 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 Hooker County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $24,497 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 244 Nebraska districts by per-pupil spending. See how Nebraska compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 72.3% local, 20.4% state, and 7.3% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 102.8:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 19.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.1% White, 5.9% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Mullen Middle School, with a diversity index of 18.0/100.
Its largest campus is Mullen Elementary School, enrolling 73 students (46% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses held roughly steady from 2022-23 to 2023-24 (163 to 165 students, +1.2%), per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $4,416,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 49.2% went to instruction, 38.5% to support services, and 4.7% to capital outlay, support-services-heavy relative to typical districts, reflecting spending on transportation, administration, or student services. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Mullen Elementary School accounts for 44.8% of all Mullen Public Schools student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Mullen Public Schools-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.
Mullen Public Schools student-counselor ratio is 103:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Mullen Public Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 19.6% — 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 Mullen Public Schools is typically wider than the Mullen Public Schools-aggregate figure suggests.