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Rapelje, Montana - 2 schools
At $19,683 per pupil, Rapelje Elem ranks #134 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
44
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$19,683
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rapelje Elem operates 2 public schools serving 44 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 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 Stillwater County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,683 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 55.9% local, 25.1% state, and 19.1% 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 180.9:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 14.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 81.9% White, 7.2% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Rapelje School, enrolling 34 students (71% of the district's total enrollment).
Rapelje School accounts for 70.8% of all Rapelje Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Rapelje Elem a distant remainder — means Rapelje Elem-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.
Rapelje Elem student-counselor ratio is 181:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Rapelje Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 14.5% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.