National ranking · NCES F-33
Highest-Spending Districts
The 50 US districts with the highest per-pupil expenditure, among districts with 500 or more students, from the NCES F-33 Finance Survey.
- $47,671
- Top per-pupil spending
- 50
- Districts ranked
- 12
- States represented
The ranking in one line
Southampton Union Free School District in New York spends $47,671 per student, 1.3 times the $35,550 it takes to make this top-50 list.
- 1.3x
- top spend vs the #50 cutoff
- $35,550
- cutoff to rank (#50)
- 1,340
- students at Southampton Union Free School District
- 3
- schools in the #1 district
The full ranking
All 50 districts, ranked by per-pupil expenditure. The shaded bar behind each value shows its magnitude. According to the NCES F-33 finance survey as of June 2026.
Methodology
Per-pupil figures are current elementary-secondary expenditure divided by fall membership from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey (FY 2021-22), the same derivation NCES publishes. Regional service agencies and county offices of education are excluded: they spend region-wide against a small direct enrollment, so their per-pupil figures are not comparable to community school districts. Districts must enroll 500 or more students to rank.
Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal records, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.