At $19,574 per pupil, Westhope 17 ranks #54 of 168 North Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (North Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
162
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$19,574
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Westhope 17 operates 2 public schools serving 162 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 Bottineau County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,574 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 38.7% local, 44.9% state, and 16.5% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 273.7:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 10.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 93.2% White, 1.9% Hispanic or Latino, 1.3% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Westhope High School, enrolling 81 students (51% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses held roughly steady from 2022-23 to 2023-24 (161 to 159 students, -1.2%), per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $3,522,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 51.7% went to instruction, 28.6% to support services, and 7% to capital outlay, a fairly typical instruction/support/capital split for a public school district. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Westhope High School accounts for 50.0% of all Westhope 17 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Westhope 17 a distant remainder — means Westhope 17-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.
Westhope 17 student-counselor ratio is 274:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Westhope 17 is typically wider than the Westhope 17-aggregate figure suggests.
Westhope 17 chronic absenteeism rate is 10.8% — 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.