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Dearborn Heights, Michigan - 1 schools
At $14,721 per pupil, Vista Meadows Academy ranks #148 of 821 Michigan districts by per-pupil spending (Michigan districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
103
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$14,721
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Vista Meadows Academy operates 1 public schools serving 103 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Michigan. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 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 Wayne County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,721 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 821 Michigan districts by per-pupil spending. See how Michigan compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 1.3% local, 65.4% state, and 33.3% 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 86:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 48.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 93.0% African American, 3.5% White, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Vista Meadows Academy, enrolling 86 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Vista Meadows Academy accounts for 83.5% of all Vista Meadows Academy student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Vista Meadows Academy a distant remainder — means Vista Meadows Academy-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.
Vista Meadows Academy has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 100.0% 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.
Vista Meadows Academy student-counselor ratio is 86:1 — 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.
Vista Meadows Academy chronic absenteeism rate is 48.8% — 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.
Vista Meadows Academy has 1 school, including 1 combined. Total enrollment is 103 students.
How much does Vista Meadows Academy spend per student?
Vista Meadows Academy spends $14,721 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Vista Meadows Academy?
Vista Meadows Academy students are 93.0% African American, 3.5% White, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino, averaged across 1 school. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.