At $22,530 per pupil, Palouse School District ranks #66 of 311 Washington districts by per-pupil spending (Washington districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
166
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$22,530
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Palouse School District operates 3 public schools serving 166 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Washington. 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 Whitman County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $22,530 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 311 Washington districts by per-pupil spending. See how Washington compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 19.6% local, 68.8% state, and 11.6% 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 57:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 7.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.5% White, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Palouse Elementary, with a diversity index of 29.3/100.
Its largest campus is Palouse Elementary, enrolling 100 students (52% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses grew 7.2% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (166 to 178 students), while the student-teacher ratio held roughly steady, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $7,052,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 31.9% went to instruction, 17.8% to support services, and 45.1% to capital outlay, a capital-heavy year, consistent with active construction, renovation, or major equipment purchases. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Palouse Elementary accounts for 52.4% of all Palouse School District student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Palouse School District a distant remainder — means Palouse School District-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.
Palouse School District school enrollment varies 2.9× across entities
Palouse School District school enrollment ranges from 34 students (lowest) to 100 students (highest), a spread of 66 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.
Palouse School District student-counselor ratio is 57:1 — 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.
Palouse School District chronic absenteeism rate is 7.2% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 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.