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Marion, Alabama - 2 schools
An equity score of 95/100 ranks Perry County #2 of 146 districts in Alabama (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,116 per pupil, Perry County ranks #14 of 146 Alabama districts by per-pupil spending (Alabama districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
935
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$15,116
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Perry County operates 2 public schools serving 935 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Alabama. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined 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 Perry County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,116 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 15 of 146 Alabama districts by per-pupil spending. See how Alabama compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 14.3% local, 53.7% state, and 32.0% 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 95/100, ranked #2 of 146 in Alabama against a state average of 51, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 2 of 2 schools offering Advanced Placement (2 AP courses district-wide), a 338.6:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 59.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 98.3% African American, 0.5% White, 0.1% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Francis Marion School, enrolling 413 students (51% of the district's total enrollment).
Francis Marion School accounts for 44.2% of all Perry County student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Perry County-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
Perry County has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 86.3% 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). Areas above 75% eligibility — including this one — 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.
Perry County student-counselor ratio is 339:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Perry County is typically wider than the Perry County-aggregate figure suggests.
Perry County chronic absenteeism rate is 59.0% — 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.