At $21,679 per pupil, Pelham ranks #226 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
131
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$21,679
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Pelham operates 1 public schools serving 131 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Massachusetts. 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 Hampshire County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $21,679 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 60.9% local, 27.0% state, and 12.0% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 64:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 9.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 64.8% White, 13.6% Hispanic or Latino, 5.6% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Pelham Elementary, enrolling 128 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses held roughly steady from 2022-23 to 2023-24 (131 to 129 students, -1.5%), per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $2,888,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 58.4% went to instruction, 40% to support services, and 0.4% to capital outlay, support-services-heavy relative to typical districts, reflecting spending on transportation, administration, or student services. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Pelham Elementary accounts for 97.7% of all Pelham student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Pelham a distant remainder — means Pelham-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Pelham student-counselor ratio is 64:1 — 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.
Pelham chronic absenteeism rate is 9.4% — 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.