At $45,571 per pupil, Northern Lights Academy Cooperative ranks #6 of 509 Minnesota districts by per-pupil spending (Minnesota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
35
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$45,571
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 $45,571 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 51 of 509 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 largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
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 reports 73.6% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
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
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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 $45,571 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.