At $21,698 per pupil, Surprise Valley Joint Unified ranks #311 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
96
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$21,698
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Surprise Valley Joint Unified operates 2 public schools serving 96 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. 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 Modoc County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $21,698 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 34.7% local, 55.0% state, and 10.3% 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 26.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 54.1% White, 23.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Surprise Valley Elementary, enrolling 51 students (57% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses fell 8.3% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (96 to 88 students), and the student-teacher ratio widened by 0.6 students per teacher despite the decline, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $2,177,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 53.5% went to instruction, 37.9% to support services, and 2.8% 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.
Surprise Valley Elementary accounts for 53.1% of all Surprise Valley Joint Unified student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Surprise Valley Joint Unified a distant remainder — means Surprise Valley Joint Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Surprise Valley Joint Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 26.9% — 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 Surprise Valley Joint Unified is typically wider than the Surprise Valley Joint Unified-aggregate figure suggests.
Comparisons are relative to Surprise Valley Joint Unified's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
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