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.
Simms, Montana - 3 schools
At $16,922 per pupil, Sun River Valley Elem ranks #183 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
178
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$16,922
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Sun River Valley Elem operates 3 public schools serving 178 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined, 1 middle 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 Cascade County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,922 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 33.9% local, 40.3% state, and 25.8% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 71.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 19.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 89.0% White, 1.4% Hispanic or Latino, 1.0% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Sun River Middle School, with a diversity index of 31.9/100.
Its largest campus is Fort Shaw Elem School, enrolling 88 students (57% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Cascade Colony School, at 11 students, a 8x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Fort Shaw Elem School accounts for 49.4% of all Sun River Valley Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Sun River Valley Elem a distant remainder — means Sun River Valley Elem-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.
Sun River Valley Elem school enrollment varies 8.0× across entities
Sun River Valley Elem school enrollment ranges from 11 students (lowest) to 88 students (highest), a spread of 77 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Sun River Valley Elem student-counselor ratio is 72:1 — 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.
Sun River Valley Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 19.6% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
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 Variation between sub-units within Sun River Valley Elem is typically wider than the Sun River Valley Elem-aggregate figure suggests.
Sun River Valley Elem has 3 schools, including 2 combined, 1 middle. Total enrollment is 178 students.
How much does Sun River Valley Elem spend per student?
Sun River Valley Elem spends $16,922 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Sun River Valley Elem?
Sun River Valley Elem students are 89.0% White, 1.4% Hispanic or Latino, 1.0% Asian, 0.4% African American, averaged across 3 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.