At $24,201 per pupil, Shell Knob 78 ranks #17 of 552 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
144
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$24,201
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Shell Knob 78 operates 1 public schools serving 144 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined 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 Barry County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $24,201 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 56 of 552 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 75.2% local, 13.4% state, and 11.4% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 158:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 24.7% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 95.6% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Shell Knob Elem., enrolling 158 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Shell Knob Elem. accounts for 100.0% of all Shell Knob 78 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Shell Knob 78 a distant remainder — means Shell Knob 78-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
The reported share is above 87.5%, so economic need is widespread across the measured student population. 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.
Shell Knob 78 student-counselor ratio is 158:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Shell Knob 78 chronic absenteeism rate is 24.7% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
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 Variation between sub-units within Shell Knob 78 is typically wider than the Shell Knob 78-aggregate figure suggests.