Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Plains, Montana - 3 schools
An equity score of 43/100 ranks Plains K-12 #47 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $12,424 per pupil, Plains K-12 ranks #302 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
453
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$12,424
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Plains K-12 operates 3 public schools serving 453 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. 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 Sanders County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,424 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 31.2% local, 51.2% state, and 17.6% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 43/100, ranked #47 of 141 in Montana against a state average of 38, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 89.8:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 36.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 91.5% White, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 0.2% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Plains Elementary School, with a diversity index of 18.0/100.
Its largest campus is Plains Elementary School, enrolling 218 students (54% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Plains 7-8, at 65 students, a 3x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Plains Elementary School accounts for 48.1% of all Plains K-12 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Plains K-12 a distant remainder — means Plains K-12-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.
Plains K-12 school enrollment varies 3.4× across entities
Plains K-12 school enrollment ranges from 65 students (lowest) to 218 students (highest), a spread of 153 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.
Plains K-12 student-counselor ratio is 90:1 — 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.
Plains K-12 chronic absenteeism rate is 36.3% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.