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.
Rowland Heights, California - 21 schools
An equity score of 73/100 ranks Rowland Unified #194 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $17,151 per pupil, Rowland Unified ranks #512 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
11,904
Total Enrollment
21
Schools
$17,151
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rowland Unified operates 21 public schools serving 11,904 students, placing it in the mid-size range in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 14 elementary, 3 high, 2 middle, 2 combined 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 Los Angeles County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $17,151 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 22.4% local, 62.4% state, and 15.2% 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 #194 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 2 of 21 schools offering Advanced Placement (40 AP courses district-wide), a 669.6:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 32.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 69.2% Hispanic or Latino, 24.6% Asian, 1.9% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Stanley G. Oswalt Academy, with a diversity index of 58.0/100.
Its largest campus is John a. Rowland High, enrolling 2,016 students (17% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Rowland Virtual Learning Academy, at 21 students, a 96x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
John a. Rowland High accounts for 16.9% of all Rowland Unified student enrollment
That concentration means Rowland Unified-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.
Rowland Unified school enrollment varies 96× across entities
Rowland Unified school enrollment ranges from 21 students (lowest) to 2,016 students (highest), a spread of 1,995 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.
Rowland Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 70.9% 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.
Rowland Unified student-counselor ratio is 670:1 — 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.
Rowland Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 32.3% — 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.