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Alexandria, Louisiana - 47 schools
An equity score of 47/100 ranks Rapides Parish #100 of 175 districts in Louisiana (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,896 per pupil, Rapides Parish ranks #131 of 188 Louisiana districts by per-pupil spending (Louisiana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
22,991
Total Enrollment
47
Schools
$13,896
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rapides Parish operates 47 public schools serving 22,991 students, placing it in the mid-size range in Louisiana. The school portfolio breaks down into 34 combined, 6 high, 4 middle, 3 elementary schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage 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 Rapides Parish.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,896 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 188 Louisiana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Louisiana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 38.9% local, 43.2% state, and 17.9% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 47/100, ranked #100 of 175 in Louisiana against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 6 of 47 schools offering Advanced Placement (46 AP courses district-wide), a 455.8:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 27.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 45.1% White, 44.0% African American, 6.0% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Cherokee Elementary School, with a diversity index of 67.6/100.
Its largest campus is Alexandria Senior High School, enrolling 1,475 students (7% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is The Pines Head Start, at 64 students, a 23x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Rapides Parish school enrollment varies 23× across entities
Rapides Parish school enrollment ranges from 64 students (lowest) to 1,475 students (highest), a spread of 1,411 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Rapides Parish has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 74.5% 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). Eligibility here is approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. 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.
Rapides Parish student-counselor ratio is 456:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Rapides Parish chronic absenteeism rate is 27.5% — 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 Rapides Parish is typically wider than the Rapides Parish-aggregate figure suggests.