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Bigfork, Montana - 2 schools
At $8,358 per pupil, Swan River Elem ranks #393 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
191
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$8,358
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Swan River Elem operates 2 public schools serving 191 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 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 Flathead County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $8,358 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 40 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 27.2% local, 50.2% state, and 22.6% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
a 158:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 64.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.6% White, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Swan River School, enrolling 106 students (67% of the district's total enrollment).
Swan River School accounts for 55.5% of all Swan River Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Swan River Elem a distant remainder — means Swan River 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.
Swan River Elem student-counselor ratio is 158:1 — 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.
Swan River Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 64.8% — 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.
Swan River Elem has 2 schools, including 1 combined, 1 middle. Total enrollment is 191 students.
How much does Swan River Elem spend per student?
Swan River Elem spends $8,358 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Swan River Elem?
Swan River Elem students are 87.6% White, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% African American, averaged across 2 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.