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Waldron, Michigan - 1 schools
An equity score of 79/100 ranks Waldron Area Schools #26 of 707 districts in Michigan (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,910 per pupil, Waldron Area Schools ranks #139 of 821 Michigan districts by per-pupil spending (Michigan districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
261
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$14,910
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Waldron Area Schools operates 1 public schools serving 261 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 Hillsdale County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,910 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 24.6% local, 52.7% state, and 22.7% 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 79/100, ranked #26 of 707 in Michigan against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 205:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 49.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 97.6% White, 1.0% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Waldron Area Schools, enrolling 205 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Waldron Area Schools accounts for 78.5% of all Waldron Area Schools student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Waldron Area Schools a distant remainder — means Waldron Area Schools-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.
Waldron Area Schools has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 64.0% 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 approaching the 75% concentration-grant threshold; it does not yet unlock the extra funding tier but sits meaningfully above the baseline 50% majority mark. 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.
Waldron Area Schools student-counselor ratio is 205:1 — 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.
Waldron Area Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 49.3% — 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.