At $19,598 per pupil, Palco ranks #34 of 286 Kansas districts by per-pupil spending (Kansas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
97
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$19,598
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Palco operates 3 public schools serving 97 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Kansas. 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 Rooks County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,598 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 286 Kansas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Kansas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 32.9% local, 60.6% state, and 6.5% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
a 107.4:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 24.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 99.3% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Damar Elementary School, with a diversity index of 4.3/100.
Its largest campus is Damar Elementary School, enrolling 46 students (60% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Palco Jr. High, at 12 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Damar Elementary School accounts for 47.4% of all Palco student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Palco a distant remainder — means Palco-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.
Palco school enrollment varies 3.8× across entities
Palco school enrollment ranges from 12 students (lowest) to 46 students (highest), a spread of 34 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.
Palco student-counselor ratio is 107:1 — 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.
Palco chronic absenteeism rate is 24.6% — 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 Palco is typically wider than the Palco-aggregate figure suggests.