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Paradise, California - 8 schools
An equity score of 86/100 ranks Paradise Unified #28 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $20,269 per pupil, Paradise Unified ranks #223 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,579
Total Enrollment
8
Schools
$20,269
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Paradise Unified operates 8 public schools serving 1,579 students, placing it among the smaller districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 elementary, 3 high, 1 middle, 1 combined schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Butte County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $20,269 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 14.7% local, 64.3% state, and 21.0% 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 86/100, ranked #28 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.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 8 schools offering Advanced Placement (5 AP courses district-wide), a 129.4:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 42.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 74.2% White, 14.9% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Paradise Junior High, with a diversity index of 46.5/100.
Its largest campus is Paradise Ridge Elementary, enrolling 496 students (29% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Paradise Unified Special Education, at 6 students, a 83x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Paradise Ridge Elementary accounts for 28.5% of all Paradise Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Paradise 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.
Paradise Unified school enrollment varies 83× across entities
Paradise Unified school enrollment ranges from 6 students (lowest) to 496 students (highest), a spread of 490 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Paradise Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 63.3% 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.
Paradise Unified student-counselor ratio is 129:1 — 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.
Paradise Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 42.3% — 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.