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Selma, California - 11 schools
An equity score of 71/100 ranks Selma Unified #236 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,523 per pupil, Selma Unified ranks #635 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
5,939
Total Enrollment
11
Schools
$16,523
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Selma Unified operates 11 public schools serving 5,939 students, placing it among the smaller districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 7 elementary, 2 combined, 1 high, 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 Fresno County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,523 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 11.7% local, 71.7% state, and 16.6% 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 71/100, ranked #236 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 11 schools offering Advanced Placement (10 AP courses district-wide), a 892:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 49.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 91.4% Hispanic or Latino, 4.2% White, 2.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Selma Independent, with a diversity index of 24.9/100.
Its largest campus is Selma High, enrolling 1,721 students (29% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Selma Independent, at 72 students, a 24x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Selma High accounts for 29.0% of all Selma Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Selma 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.
Selma Unified school enrollment varies 24× across entities
Selma Unified school enrollment ranges from 72 students (lowest) to 1,721 students (highest), a spread of 1,649 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.
Selma Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 80.6% 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.
Selma Unified student-counselor ratio is 892:1 — 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.
Selma Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 49.1% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.