At $43,079 per pupil, Sentinel Elementary District (4250) ranks #7 of 633 Arizona districts by per-pupil spending (Arizona districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
38
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$43,079
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Sentinel Elementary District (4250) operates 1 public schools serving 38 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Arizona. 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 Maricopa County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $43,079 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 64 of 633 Arizona districts by per-pupil spending. See how Arizona compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 63.0% local, 14.8% state, and 22.2% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
and 34.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 88.6% Hispanic or Latino, 11.4% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Sentinel Elementary School, enrolling 35 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses fell 10.5% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (38 to 34 students), and the student-teacher ratio widened by 0.9 students per teacher despite the decline, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $2,031,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 34.5% went to instruction, 39.3% to support services, and 19.1% to capital outlay, a capital-heavy year, consistent with active construction, renovation, or major equipment purchases. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Sentinel Elementary School accounts for 92.1% of all Sentinel Elementary District (4250) student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Sentinel Elementary District (4250) a distant remainder — means Sentinel Elementary District (4250)-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Sentinel Elementary District (4250) reports 63.2% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Sentinel Elementary District (4250) chronic absenteeism rate is 34.3% — 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.
Comparisons are relative to Sentinel Elementary District (4250)'s own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Arizona
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.