At $26,736 per pupil, Sunburst K-12 Schools ranks #70 of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
125
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$26,736
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Sunburst K-12 Schools operates 3 public schools serving 125 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high, 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 Toole County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $26,736 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 55.9% local, 33.7% state, and 10.4% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 3 schools offering Advanced Placement (1 AP courses district-wide), a 68.3:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 21.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 91.7% White, 3.3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Sunburst 7 - 8, with a diversity index of 21.2/100.
Its largest campus is Sunburst Elementary, enrolling 57 students (46% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses grew 27.2% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (125 to 159 students), while the student-teacher ratio widened by 2.3 students per teacher, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $3,733,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 50.3% went to instruction, 35.5% to support services, and 9.5% to capital outlay, support-services-heavy relative to typical districts, reflecting spending on transportation, administration, or student services. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Sunburst Elementary accounts for 45.6% of all Sunburst K-12 Schools student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Sunburst K-12 Schools a distant remainder — means Sunburst K-12 Schools-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.
Sunburst K-12 Schools school enrollment varies 2.2× across entities
Sunburst K-12 Schools school enrollment ranges from 26 students (lowest) to 57 students (highest), a spread of 31 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.
Sunburst K-12 Schools student-counselor ratio is 68:1 — 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.
Sunburst K-12 Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 21.5% — 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 Sunburst K-12 Schools is typically wider than the Sunburst K-12 Schools-aggregate figure suggests.