At $23,649 per pupil, Smee School District 15-3 ranks #6 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (South Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
188
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$23,649
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Smee School District 15-3 operates 3 public schools serving 188 students, placing it among the smallest districts in South Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 middle, 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 Corson County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $23,649 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 15 of 149 South Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how South Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 4.2% local, 27.6% state, and 68.3% federal, an unusually federal-heavy mix, typically a marker of concentrated Title I eligibility or a small district reliant on federal impact-aid programs.
a 102.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 30.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 1.5% White, 0.8% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Wakpala Middle School - 04, with a diversity index of 13.9/100.
Its largest campus is Wakpala Elementary - 02, enrolling 95 students (55% of the district's total enrollment).
Wakpala Elementary - 02 accounts for 50.5% of all Smee School District 15-3 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Smee School District 15-3 a distant remainder — means Smee School District 15-3-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.
Smee School District 15-3 school enrollment varies 2.5× across entities
Smee School District 15-3 school enrollment ranges from 38 students (lowest) to 95 students (highest), a spread of 57 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Smee School District 15-3 reports 100.0% free-lunch eligibility
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.
Smee School District 15-3 student-counselor ratio is 103:1 — 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.
Smee School District 15-3 chronic absenteeism rate is 30.6% — 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.