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Palacios, Texas - 4 schools
An equity score of 45/100 ranks Palacios Isd #614 of 1044 districts in Texas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,100 per pupil, Palacios Isd ranks #278 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending (Texas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,300
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$15,100
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Palacios Isd operates 4 public schools serving 1,300 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Texas. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 high, 1 combined, 1 middle, 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 Matagorda County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,100 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Texas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 78.7% local, 6.8% state, and 14.5% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 45/100, ranked #614 of 1044 in Texas against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (12 AP courses district-wide), a 458.3:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 10.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 71.8% Hispanic or Latino, 21.3% White, 4.3% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Palacios H S, enrolling 655 students (36% of the district's total enrollment).
Palacios H S accounts for 35.7% of all Palacios Isd student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Palacios Isd-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Palacios Isd school enrollment varies 2.4× across entities
Palacios Isd school enrollment ranges from 275 students (lowest) to 655 students (highest), a spread of 380 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.
Palacios Isd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 67.2% 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.
Palacios Isd student-counselor ratio is 458:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Palacios Isd chronic absenteeism rate is 10.3% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.