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Fort Wayne, Indiana - 1 schools
At $13,187 per pupil, Smith Academy for Excellence ranks #91 of 406 Indiana districts by per-pupil spending (Indiana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
73
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$13,187
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Smith Academy for Excellence operates 1 public schools serving 73 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Indiana. 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 Allen County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,187 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 406 Indiana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Indiana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 6.8% local, 69.9% state, and 23.3% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
and 70.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 42.2% African American, 25.0% White, 14.1% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Smith Academy for Excellence, enrolling 64 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Smith Academy for Excellence accounts for 87.7% of all Smith Academy for Excellence student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Smith Academy for Excellence a distant remainder — means Smith Academy for Excellence-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.
Smith Academy for Excellence has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 76.7% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility — including this one — receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Smith Academy for Excellence chronic absenteeism rate is 70.3% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
How many schools are in Smith Academy for Excellence?
Smith Academy for Excellence has 1 school, including 1 combined. Total enrollment is 73 students.
How much does Smith Academy for Excellence spend per student?
Smith Academy for Excellence spends $13,187 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Smith Academy for Excellence?
Smith Academy for Excellence students are 42.2% African American, 25.0% White, 14.1% Hispanic or Latino, averaged across 1 school. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.