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Shelby, Montana - 4 schools
An equity score of 12/100 ranks Shelby Elem #136 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $10,605 per pupil, Shelby Elem ranks #363 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
390
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$10,605
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Shelby Elem operates 4 public schools serving 390 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 combined, 1 middle 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 Toole County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $10,605 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 40 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 45.7% local, 41.6% state, and 12.7% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 12/100, ranked #136 of 141 in Montana against a state average of 38, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 185.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 34.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 85.3% White, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.7% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Shelby Elementary School, with a diversity index of 50.9/100.
Its largest campus is Shelby Elementary School, enrolling 262 students (63% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Big Rose Colony School, at 14 students, a 19x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Shelby Elementary School accounts for 63.4% of all Shelby Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Shelby Elem a distant remainder — means Shelby Elem-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
Shelby Elem school enrollment varies 19× across entities
Shelby Elem school enrollment ranges from 14 students (lowest) to 262 students (highest), a spread of 248 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Shelby Elem student-counselor ratio is 186:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Shelby Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 34.0% — 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.