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Soledad, California - 10 schools
An equity score of 66/100 ranks Soledad Unified #360 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,908 per pupil, Soledad Unified ranks #744 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
4,748
Total Enrollment
10
Schools
$15,908
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Soledad Unified operates 10 public schools serving 4,748 students, placing it among the smaller districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 5 elementary, 3 high, 1 middle, 1 combined schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Monterey County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,908 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 20.6% local, 67.4% state, and 12.0% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 66/100, ranked #360 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 10 schools offering Advanced Placement (13 AP courses district-wide), a 329.2:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 39.7% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 96.3% Hispanic or Latino, 1.9% White, 1.0% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Frank Ledesma Elementary, with a diversity index of 10.0/100.
Its largest campus is Soledad High, enrolling 1,546 students (32% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Soledad Transition Center, at 12 students, a 129x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Soledad High accounts for 32.3% of all Soledad Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Soledad Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Soledad Unified school enrollment varies 129× across entities
Soledad Unified school enrollment ranges from 12 students (lowest) to 1,546 students (highest), a spread of 1,534 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Soledad Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 69.8% 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). Eligibility here is approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. 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.
Soledad Unified student-counselor ratio is 329:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Soledad Unified is typically wider than the Soledad Unified-aggregate figure suggests.
Soledad Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 39.7% — 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.