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Sacramento County · California

Sacramento, CA public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Sacramento City Unified is the primary public district for Sacramento, CA. It enrolls 38,821 students in 73 schools with 1,711 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $17,638 per pupil, 2% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
38,821NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
73Operating school count
Students per teacher
22.7Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$17,638Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Sacramento

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
24.8%
$191,466,000
State revenue
56.4%
$435,794,000
Federal revenue
18.8%
$145,392,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Sacramento property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 55 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Sacramento numbers

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

Spending of $17,638 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 2 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction takes 55 cents of each dollar — $9,721 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 24.8% local, 56.4% state — so both the local tax base and the CA aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 18.8% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

38,821 students across 73 schools averages 532 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is thin relative to peers: 22.7 students per FTE teacher against a 15.2 median, 7.5 students more per teacher.

Worth flagging: a federal share this large means the district is exposed to grant cycles. Title I and pandemic-era relief awards can move the per-pupil figure between survey years without any change in local taxation.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Sacramento City Unified is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Sacramento 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 Sacramento 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 0633840. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.