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Turlock, California - 14 schools
An equity score of 48/100 ranks Turlock Unified #810 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,142 per pupil, Turlock Unified ranks #938 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
13,377
Total Enrollment
14
Schools
$15,142
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Turlock Unified operates 14 public schools serving 13,377 students, placing it among the smaller districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 9 elementary, 3 high, 2 middle schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Stanislaus County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,142 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 26.7% local, 60.8% state, and 12.4% 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 48/100, ranked #810 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 2 of 14 schools offering Advanced Placement (48 AP courses district-wide), a 580.8:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 40.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 62.9% Hispanic or Latino, 24.0% White, 6.8% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Walnut Elementary Education Center, with a diversity index of 67.8/100.
Its largest campus is Turlock High, enrolling 2,479 students (18% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Roselawn High, at 181 students, a 14x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Turlock High accounts for 18.4% of all Turlock Unified student enrollment
That concentration means Turlock Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Turlock Unified school enrollment varies 14× across entities
Turlock Unified school enrollment ranges from 181 students (lowest) to 2,479 students (highest), a spread of 2,298 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.
Turlock Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 54.5% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Turlock Unified student-counselor ratio is 581:1 — 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.
Turlock Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 40.9% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.