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Payson, Arizona - 4 schools
An equity score of 43/100 ranks Payson Unified District (4209) #160 of 437 districts in Arizona (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $10,239 per pupil, Payson Unified District (4209) ranks #367 of 634 Arizona districts by per-pupil spending (Arizona districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
2,318
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$10,239
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Payson Unified District (4209) operates 4 public schools serving 2,318 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Arizona. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 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 Gila County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $10,239 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 634 Arizona districts by per-pupil spending. See how Arizona compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 51.2% local, 33.2% state, and 15.7% 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 43/100, ranked #160 of 437 in Arizona against a state average of 38, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 444.4:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 66.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 63.5% White, 27.9% Hispanic or Latino, 0.7% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Julia Randall Elementary School, with a diversity index of 54.2/100.
Its largest campus is Payson High School, enrolling 733 students (34% of the district's total enrollment).
Payson High School accounts for 31.6% of all Payson Unified District (4209) student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Payson Unified District (4209)-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.
Payson Unified District (4209) student-counselor ratio is 444:1 — 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.
Payson Unified District (4209) chronic absenteeism rate is 66.4% — 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.
Comparisons are relative to Payson Unified District (4209)'s own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Arizona
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.