Enrollment
76
Iowa · 2024-25 NCES data
Other / mixed grade configuration · Bennett, IA
Bennett Elementary School
Federal NCES profile for Bennett Elementary School, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 51/100.
2024-25 NCES dataOther / mixed grade configurationNCES 190474000134
👥 S:T ratio 72
🌟 Gifted program 70
🎓 Counselors 0
📋 Attendance 61
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Bennett Elementary School earns 51/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes smaller than 99% of Iowa schools. It is also one of the smallest schools in Iowa.
- 51
- Resource Index · Higher
- 6.9:1
- small classes for Iowa
- 32.6%
- free-lunch eligible
- 76
- students enrolled
Bennett Elementary School has class sizes smaller than 99% of Iowa schools. Computed live against every Iowa school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Bennett Comm School District · Iowa
NCES ID 190474000134 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
11.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
6.9:1
vs 14.8:1 Iowa avg
-53% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
32.6%
vs 36.4% Iowa avg
-10% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Bennett Elementary School compares with Iowa and U.S. medians
What stands out at Bennett Elementary School
Small campus with unusually lean teacher staffing
Bennett Elementary School sits near the smaller end of the Iowa enrollment distribution while also reporting a lower student-teacher ratio than most state schools. That pairing is consistent with a compact, teacher-dense setting, though small scale can limit the number of specialized courses or support roles a campus can sustain. The program and staffing sections below show whether the lean ratio extends beyond classroom teachers into broader student services.
Need and resources require a component-level read
Bennett Elementary School falls within the wide middle of the Iowa distribution on both free-meal eligibility and the Resource Investment Index. Neither measure supplies an honest headline by itself. The useful distinctions are in the components: classroom staffing, counselor availability, attendance, gifted-program access, and district spending. Those fields can pull in opposite directions even when the overall percentile looks ordinary.
Counselor caseload is the clearest capacity constraint
Bennett Elementary School reports roughly 950 students for each counselor, well beyond the ASCA-recommended 250:1 benchmark. Unlike total teacher staffing, that measure speaks specifically to academic planning, crisis response, and student guidance; a middle-range Resource Investment Index can conceal the bottleneck. The ratio is calculated from federal full-time-equivalent staffing and does not show how the district shares counselors across buildings or schedules their time.
Bennett Elementary School is a small combined-grade school in Bennett, Iowa, enrolling 76 students.
Classes run notably small here: at 6.9:1, Bennett Elementary School is leaner than roughly 99% of Iowa schools and 53% under the state's 14.8:1 norm, more adult attention per pupil than most peers.
Its free-meal eligibility rate of 32.6% lands close to the Iowa typical range, neither a high- nor low-need campus by this measure.
This is a small campus: fewer students than 95% of Iowa schools, with 76 enrolled.
Its Resource Investment Index lands in the upper third of 1,322 scored Iowa schools.
Against 48 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks in the upper tier at #20.
Its student body is predominantly White (91% of enrollment) (diversity index 17/100).
Counselor access is stretched at roughly 950 students per counselor, well above the ASCA-recommended 250:1 ceiling.
15.8% of students were chronically absent in the 2021-22 collection, in line with the post-pandemic national range.
The surrounding Bennett Comm School District spends $17,640 per pupil, 31% above the Iowa average, a better-resourced district than most.
Bennett Comm School District operates only this one school, so Bennett Elementary School has no district-mates to compare against locally. At 76 students, it is also a small operation, on the smaller end of Iowa's single-school districts.
Sourced from NCES CCD, CRDC, and F-33 (federal records, not a quality verdict). How we source and compute this.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data + CRDC + F-33 · 2024-25
How Bennett Elementary School compares
Bennett Elementary School on the metrics families compare, against Iowa and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs Iowa | Iowa avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 6.9:1 | ▼ 53% | 14.8:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 32.6% | ▼ 10% | 36.4% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 76 | top 95% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
6.9:1
Leaner classes than 97% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
76
Bigger than 8% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
32.6%
free-lunch eligible
- 10% below the Iowa average of 36.4%
Below the 40% Title I threshold; federal aid targets individual qualifying students rather than schoolwide programs.
Staffing depth
6.9:1
students per teacher
- 53% below state mean
Top 1% in Iowa - lower ratio than 99% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
15.8%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
In the 15-20% range, nearing the "high" absenteeism threshold.
Funding equity
$17,640
per pupil, district-wide
- above Iowa avg of $13,441
Close to the U.S. public-school average per-pupil spend.
Support staff
Counselors0.1 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
4
in-school suspensions + 4 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 5.3 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 10.5 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Student demographics
White 90.8%
Hispanic or Latino 9.2%
Largest group: White at 90.8% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 16.7/100
Simpson diversity index - at 16.7, Bennett Elementary School is less mixed than the Iowa school average of 33.8.
Programs
Gifted & talented Yes
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Bennett Comm School District, which includes Bennett Elementary School.
$17,640
Per student
+31%
vs Iowa
Avg $13,441
0%
vs U.S.
Avg $17,658
Revenue mix
Local 43.9%
State 49.4%
Federal 6.8%
Source: NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey District-level finance · FY 2022-23 Per-pupil expenditure reflects the district-wide average. Individual school budgets are not reported at the federal level.
Similar other schools statewide
Matched by enrollment size and by staffing ratio across all of Iowa, not just this city - a different peer set than the local comparisons above.
Similar enrollment (~76 students)
Similar student-teacher ratio (~6.9:1)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Bennett Elementary School's federal record.
- Compare Bennett Elementary School against another school. Compare schools
- Bennett Comm School District's spending and staffing shape this school. District profile
- Confirm current enrollment and boundaries with the school. Choosing guide
Federal record (CCD 2024-25, CRDC 2021-22) - PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently asked questions about Bennett Elementary School
How many students attend Bennett Elementary School?
Bennett Elementary School has 76 students enrolled. It is a public school in Bennett, IA.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Bennett Elementary School?
The student-teacher ratio at Bennett Elementary School is 6.9:1, which is 53% lower than the Iowa average of 14.8:1 and 56% lower than the national average of 15.7:1. Lower ratios generally mean more individual attention per student.
What percentage of students receive free lunch at Bennett Elementary School?
32.6% of students at Bennett Elementary School are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Iowa average of 36.4%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Bennett Elementary School?
The largest demographic group at Bennett Elementary School is White at 90.8% of enrollment, in Bennett, IA.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Bennett Elementary School?
Bennett Elementary School has a Resource Investment Index of 51/100 (higher reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 4 factors: student-teacher ratio, gifted-program reporting, counselor availability, chronic absenteeism. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).
What other schools are in Bennett Comm School District?
None reported; Bennett Comm School District operates only Bennett Elementary School as a public school district in NCES's records.
Related tools
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. Each school's figures reflect its most recent NCES/CRDC submission on file. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.