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Willows, California - 1 schools
At $12,699 per pupil, Walden Academy District ranks #1470 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
192
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$12,699
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Walden Academy District operates 1 public schools serving 192 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 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 Glenn County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,699 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 28.7% local, 54.1% state, and 17.2% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
and 16.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 40.1% White, 38.3% Hispanic or Latino, 1.8% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Walden Academy, enrolling 167 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Walden Academy accounts for 87.0% of all Walden Academy District student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Walden Academy District a distant remainder — means Walden Academy District-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Walden Academy District has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 54.7% 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.
Walden Academy District chronic absenteeism rate is 16.2% — 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 Walden Academy District is typically wider than the Walden Academy District-aggregate figure suggests.