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Riverdale, California - 4 schools
An equity score of 73/100 ranks Riverdale Joint Unified #196 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,568 per pupil, Riverdale Joint Unified ranks #622 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,469
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$16,568
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Riverdale Joint Unified operates 4 public schools serving 1,469 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 2 high 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 Fresno County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,568 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 23.7% local, 60.3% state, and 15.9% 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 73/100, ranked #196 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (9 AP courses district-wide), a 392.2:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 36.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 89.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.3% White, 0.3% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Horizon High, with a diversity index of 24.5/100.
Its largest campus is Riverdale Elementary, enrolling 507 students (36% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Horizon High, at 7 students, a 72x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Riverdale Elementary accounts for 34.5% of all Riverdale Joint Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Riverdale Joint Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Riverdale Joint Unified school enrollment varies 72× across entities
Riverdale Joint Unified school enrollment ranges from 7 students (lowest) to 507 students (highest), a spread of 500 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.
Riverdale Joint Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 75.5% 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). 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.
Riverdale Joint Unified student-counselor ratio is 392:1 — 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.
Riverdale Joint Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 36.9% — 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.