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Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania - 14 schools
An equity score of 43/100 ranks Upper Darby Sd #380 of 648 districts in Pennsylvania (state average 49). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,728 per pupil, Upper Darby Sd ranks #581 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending (Pennsylvania districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
12,495
Total Enrollment
14
Schools
$14,728
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Upper Darby Sd operates 14 public schools serving 12,495 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Pennsylvania. The school portfolio breaks down into 11 elementary, 2 middle, 1 high 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 Delaware County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,728 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending. See how Pennsylvania compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 49.9% local, 37.4% state, and 12.7% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 43/100, ranked #380 of 648 in Pennsylvania against a state average of 49, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 14 schools offering Advanced Placement (18 AP courses district-wide), a 532.3:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 26.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 45.0% African American, 19.3% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Upper Darby Kdg Ctr, with a diversity index of 74.1/100.
Its largest campus is Upper Darby Shs, enrolling 4,187 students (35% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Aronimink El Sch, at 264 students, a 16x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Upper Darby Shs accounts for 33.5% of all Upper Darby Sd student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Upper Darby Sd-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.
Upper Darby Sd school enrollment varies 16× across entities
Upper Darby Sd school enrollment ranges from 264 students (lowest) to 4,187 students (highest), a spread of 3,923 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.
Upper Darby Sd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 99.6% 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). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Upper Darby Sd student-counselor ratio is 532:1 — 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.
Upper Darby Sd chronic absenteeism rate is 26.2% — 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 Upper Darby Sd is typically wider than the Upper Darby Sd-aggregate figure suggests.