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Turtle Lake, North Dakota - 2 schools
At $18,153 per pupil, Turtle Lake-Mercer 72 ranks #66 of 168 North Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (North Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
175
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$18,153
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Turtle Lake-Mercer 72 operates 2 public schools serving 175 students, placing it among the smallest districts in North Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 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 Mclean County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $18,153 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 168 North Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how North Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 41.3% local, 44.6% state, and 14.1% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 182:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 11.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 95.2% White, 0.5% African American across the district's schools.
Turtle Lake-Mercer Elementary School accounts for 53.3% of all Turtle Lake-Mercer 72 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Turtle Lake-Mercer 72 a distant remainder — means Turtle Lake-Mercer 72-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. 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.
Turtle Lake-Mercer 72 student-counselor ratio is 182:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Turtle Lake-Mercer 72 chronic absenteeism rate is 11.6% — 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.