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Prior Lake, Minnesota - 13 schools
An equity score of 18/100 ranks Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools #395 of 410 districts in Minnesota (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $12,069 per pupil, Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools ranks #424 of 504 Minnesota districts by per-pupil spending (Minnesota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
8,788
Total Enrollment
13
Schools
$12,069
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools operates 13 public schools serving 8,788 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Minnesota. The school portfolio breaks down into 7 elementary, 3 high, 2 combined, 1 middle 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 Scott County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,069 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 504 Minnesota districts by per-pupil spending. See how Minnesota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 31.6% local, 62.3% state, and 6.1% 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 18/100, ranked #395 of 410 in Minnesota against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 13 schools offering Advanced Placement (14 AP courses district-wide), a 540.1:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 15.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 67.7% White, 8.7% African American, 8.4% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Alc Independent Study, with a diversity index of 69.4/100.
Its largest campus is Prior Lake High School, enrolling 2,856 students (33% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Alc Independent Study, at 34 students, a 84x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Prior Lake High School accounts for 32.5% of all Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools-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.
Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools school enrollment varies 84× across entities
Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools school enrollment ranges from 34 students (lowest) to 2,856 students (highest), a spread of 2,822 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.
Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools student-counselor ratio is 540:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.
Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 15.4% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
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 Variation between sub-units within Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools is typically wider than the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools-aggregate figure suggests.
Comparisons are relative to Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Minnesota
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