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Boxford, Massachusetts - 2 schools
An equity score of 54/100 ranks Topsfield #46 of 362 districts in Massachusetts (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $21,145 per pupil, Topsfield ranks #204 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
630
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$21,145
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Topsfield operates 2 public schools serving 630 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Massachusetts. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 elementary 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 Essex County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $21,145 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 24.5% local, 56.4% state, and 19.1% 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 54/100, ranked #46 of 362 in Massachusetts against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 996.7:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 9.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 90.8% White, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 1.6% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Steward Elementary, enrolling 347 students (58% of the district's total enrollment).
Steward Elementary accounts for 55.1% of all Topsfield student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Topsfield a distant remainder — means Topsfield-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.
Topsfield student-counselor ratio is 997:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.
Topsfield chronic absenteeism rate is 9.8% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.