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Riverside County · California

Riverside, CA public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Riverside Unified — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Riverside Unified is the primary public district for Riverside, CA. It enrolls 39,425 students in 49 schools with 1,663 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $16,676 per pupil, 4% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
39,425NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
49Operating school count
Students per teacher
23.7Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$16,676Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Riverside

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
24.6%
$161,398,000
State revenue
62.2%
$408,556,000
Federal revenue
13.2%
$86,399,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Riverside property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 53 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Riverside numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

Spending of $16,676 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 4 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction takes 53 cents of each dollar — $8,768 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

The state carries this district: 62.2% of revenue arrives from CA state aid and only 24.6% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal aid contributes 13.2%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

39,425 students across 49 schools averages 805 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is thin relative to peers: 23.7 students per FTE teacher against a 15.2 median, 8.5 students more per teacher.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Riverside Unified is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Riverside city limits and these figures describe that wider area. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Riverside datasets on this site.

Statewide: California cities · California ZIP codes · California sales tax · California counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 0633150. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.