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Tulare, California - 1 schools
An equity score of 59/100 ranks Palo Verde Union Elementary #524 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,541 per pupil, Palo Verde Union Elementary ranks #849 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
499
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$15,541
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Palo Verde Union Elementary operates 1 public schools serving 499 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 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 Tulare County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,541 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 9.0% local, 78.9% state, and 12.1% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 59/100, ranked #524 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
and 35.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 92.0% Hispanic or Latino, 5.7% White, 1.0% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Palo Verde Elementary, enrolling 511 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Palo Verde Elementary accounts for 100.0% of all Palo Verde Union Elementary student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Palo Verde Union Elementary a distant remainder — means Palo Verde Union Elementary-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.
Palo Verde Union Elementary has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 53.9% 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). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. 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.
Palo Verde Union Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 35.6% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.