At $28,520 per pupil, Shields Valley H S ranks #56 of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
50
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$28,520
Per-Pupil Spending
High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Shields Valley H S operates 1 public schools serving 50 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 high 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 Park County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $28,520 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 58.7% local, 40.8% state, and 0.5% 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 118:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 13.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 93.2% White, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Shields Valley High Schl, enrolling 59 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Shields Valley High Schl accounts for 100.0% of all Shields Valley H S student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Shields Valley H S a distant remainder — means Shields Valley H S-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Shields Valley H S student-counselor ratio is 118:1 — 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.
Shields Valley H S chronic absenteeism rate is 13.6% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.