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Independence, California - 2 schools
At $30,407 per pupil, Owens Valley Unified ranks #57 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
89
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$30,407
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Owens Valley Unified operates 2 public schools serving 89 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 high 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 Inyo County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $30,407 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 187 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 79.4% local, 13.8% state, and 6.7% 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 38.3:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 45.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 44.3% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% White, 4.3% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Owens Valley Elementary, enrolling 76 students (77% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Owens Valley High, at 23 students, a 3x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Owens Valley Elementary accounts for 76.8% of all Owens Valley Unified student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Owens Valley Unified a distant remainder — means Owens Valley 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.
Owens Valley Unified student-counselor ratio is 38:1 — 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.
Owens Valley Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 45.0% — 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.
Owens Valley Unified has 2 schools, including 1 elementary, 1 high. Total enrollment is 89 students.
How much does Owens Valley Unified spend per student?
Owens Valley Unified spends $30,407 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Owens Valley Unified?
Owens Valley Unified students are 44.3% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% White, 4.3% African American, 1.3% Asian, averaged across 2 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.