Enrollment
44
California · 2024-25 NCES data
Elementary school (grades K-5) · Caliente, CA
Piute Mountain Elementary
Federal NCES profile for Piute Mountain Elementary, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 38/100.
2024-25 NCES dataElementary school (grades K-5)NCES 060696008121
👥 S:T ratio 41
🌟 Gifted program 30
🎓 Counselors 82
📋 Attendance 0
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Piute Mountain Elementary earns 38/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes smaller than 90% of California schools.
- 38
- Resource Index · Typical
- 14.7:1
- small classes for California
- 70.3%
- free-lunch eligible
- 44
- students enrolled
Piute Mountain Elementary has class sizes smaller than 90% of California schools. Computed live against every California school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Caliente Union Elementary · California
NCES ID 060696008121 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
3.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
14.7:1
vs 21.5:1 California avg
-32% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
70.3%
vs 55.5% California avg
+27% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Piute Mountain Elementary compares with California and U.S. medians
What stands out at Piute Mountain Elementary
Small campus with unusually lean teacher staffing
Piute Mountain Elementary sits near the smaller end of the California 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
Piute Mountain Elementary falls within the wide middle of the California 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.
Attendance is the dominant support signal
Piute Mountain Elementary's 86.4% chronic-absence rate is more consequential than a generic staffing label: at least one quarter of students missed 10% or more of school days in the 2021-22 collection. That level can affect instruction, counseling demand, and continuity even when other reported resources look ordinary. The dataset records the scale of absence but not its causes, so it should prompt a current-year question rather than a conclusion about school management.
Piute Mountain Elementary is a higher-need, small elementary school in Caliente, California, enrolling 44 students.
Classes run notably small here: at 14.7:1, Piute Mountain Elementary is leaner than roughly 90% of California schools and 32% under the state's 21.5:1 norm, more adult attention per pupil than most peers.
Economic need runs somewhat above the state's typical profile, with 70.3% of students eligible for free meals.
This is a small campus: fewer students than 94% of California schools, with 44 enrolled.
Its Resource Investment Index lands in the upper third of 9,998 scored California schools.
Against 146 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks mid-pack at #73.
Its student body is led by White (59%) and Hispanic or Latino (32%) (diversity index 54/100).
Counselor coverage is strong, about 88 students per counselor, inside the American School Counselor Association's recommended 250:1.
Chronic absenteeism is elevated: 86.4% of students missed 10% or more of school days (2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection).
Its district draws 37.9% of revenue from federal sources, an above-typical federal share that tends to track a higher-need student population.
Caliente Union Elementary operates only this one school, so Piute Mountain Elementary has no district-mates to compare against locally. At 44 students, it is also a small operation, on the smaller end of California'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 Piute Mountain Elementary compares
Piute Mountain Elementary on the metrics families compare, against California and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs California | California avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 14.7:1 | ▼ 32% | 21.5:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 70.3% | ▲ 27% | 55.5% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 44 | top 94% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
14.7:1
Leaner classes than 50% of US schools, a middle-of-the-pack class size.
44
Bigger than 5% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
70.3%
free-lunch eligible
- 27% above the California average of 55.5%
Above the 40% Title I schoolwide threshold; federal funds support the whole school, not individual students.
Staffing depth
14.7:1
students per teacher
- 32% below state mean
Top 10% in California - lower ratio than 90% of state schools
Close to the 15:1 benchmark most often cited for individualized attention.
Engagement
86.4%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
At or above 20%, the commonly used threshold for "high" chronic absenteeism, signaling significant barriers to regular attendance.
Funding equity
$17,797
per pupil, district-wide
- below California avg of $18,665
Close to the U.S. public-school average per-pupil spend.
Support staff
Counselors0.5 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
2
in-school suspensions + 1 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 4.5 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 6.8 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Student demographics
White 59.1%
Hispanic or Latino 31.8%
American Indian / Alaska Native 6.8%
Two or More 2.3%
Largest group: White at 59.1% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 54.4/100
Simpson diversity index - at 54.4, Piute Mountain Elementary is more mixed than the California school average of 46.0.
Programs
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Caliente Union Elementary, which includes Piute Mountain Elementary.
$17,797
Per student
-5%
vs California
Avg $18,665
+1%
vs U.S.
Avg $17,658
Revenue mix
Local 21.7%
State 40.4%
Federal 37.9%
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 elementary schools statewide
Matched by enrollment size and by staffing ratio across all of California, not just this city - a different peer set than the local comparisons above.
Similar enrollment (~44 students)
Similar student-teacher ratio (~14.7:1)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Piute Mountain Elementary's federal record.
- Compare Piute Mountain Elementary against another school. Compare schools
- Caliente Union Elementary'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 Piute Mountain Elementary
How many students attend Piute Mountain Elementary?
Piute Mountain Elementary has 44 students enrolled. It is an elementary school in Caliente, CA.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Piute Mountain Elementary?
The student-teacher ratio at Piute Mountain Elementary is 14.7:1, which is 32% lower than the California average of 21.5:1 and 6% 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 Piute Mountain Elementary?
70.3% of students at Piute Mountain Elementary are eligible for free lunch, compared to the California average of 55.5%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Piute Mountain Elementary?
The largest demographic group at Piute Mountain Elementary is White at 59.1% of enrollment, in Caliente, CA. Its student body is more racially and ethnically mixed than most US schools, with a diversity index of 54.4/100.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Piute Mountain Elementary?
Piute Mountain Elementary has a Resource Investment Index of 38/100 (typical 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 Caliente Union Elementary?
None reported; Caliente Union Elementary operates only Piute Mountain Elementary 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.