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Wasco, California - 1 schools
At $20,988 per pupil, Semitropic Elementary ranks #195 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
151
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$20,988
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Semitropic Elementary operates 1 public schools serving 151 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary 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 Kern County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $20,988 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 34.2% local, 55.5% state, and 10.3% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
and 31.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 97.1% Hispanic or Latino, 2.1% African American, 0.7% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Semitropic Elementary, enrolling 140 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Semitropic Elementary accounts for 92.7% of all Semitropic Elementary student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Semitropic Elementary a distant remainder — means Semitropic Elementary-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.
Semitropic Elementary has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 62.9% 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.
Semitropic Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 31.4% — 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.