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Cloquet, Minnesota - 3 schools
At $45,778 per pupil, Northern Lights Academy Cooperative ranks #6 of 504 Minnesota districts by per-pupil spending (Minnesota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
35
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$45,778
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative operates 3 public schools serving 35 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Minnesota. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined, 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 Carlton County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $45,778 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 51 of 504 Minnesota districts by per-pupil spending. See how Minnesota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 10.7% local, 87.3% state, and 2.0% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
and 49.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 55.0% White, 10.4% African American, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Nla-Carlton, enrolling 31 students (62% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Northern Lights Academy Cooperative, at 5 students, a 6x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Nla-Carlton accounts for 62.0% of all Northern Lights Academy Cooperative student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Northern Lights Academy Cooperative a distant remainder — means Northern Lights Academy Cooperative-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.
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative school enrollment varies 6.2× across entities
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative school enrollment ranges from 5 students (lowest) to 31 students (highest), a spread of 26 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 70.5% 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.
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative chronic absenteeism rate is 49.3% — 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.
Comparisons are relative to Northern Lights Academy Cooperative's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Minnesota
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.
How many schools are in Northern Lights Academy Cooperative?
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative has 3 schools, including 2 combined, 1 elementary. Total enrollment is 35 students.
How much does Northern Lights Academy Cooperative spend per student?
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative spends $45,778 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Northern Lights Academy Cooperative?
Northern Lights Academy Cooperative students are 55.0% White, 10.4% African American, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino, averaged across 3 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.