Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Steelton, Pennsylvania - 2 schools
An equity score of 60/100 ranks Steelton-Highspire Sd #212 of 648 districts in Pennsylvania (state average 49). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,712 per pupil, Steelton-Highspire Sd ranks #394 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending (Pennsylvania districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,377
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$16,712
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Steelton-Highspire Sd operates 2 public schools serving 1,377 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Pennsylvania. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 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 Dauphin County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,712 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending. See how Pennsylvania compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 26.6% local, 52.5% state, and 20.9% 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 60/100, ranked #212 of 648 in Pennsylvania against a state average of 49, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 2 schools offering Advanced Placement (3 AP courses district-wide), a 281.8:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 60.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 50.3% African American, 28.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Steelton-Highspire El Sch, enrolling 821 students (57% of the district's total enrollment).
Steelton-Highspire El Sch accounts for 57.3% of all Steelton-Highspire Sd student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Steelton-Highspire Sd a distant remainder — means Steelton-Highspire Sd-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Steelton-Highspire Sd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 100.0% 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 a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Steelton-Highspire Sd student-counselor ratio is 282:1 — 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 Steelton-Highspire Sd is typically wider than the Steelton-Highspire Sd-aggregate figure suggests.
Steelton-Highspire Sd chronic absenteeism rate is 60.6% — 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.