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Yellowstone County · Montana

Billings, MT public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Billings Elem is the primary public district for Billings, MT. It enrolls 10,988 students in 28 schools with 729 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $13,341 per pupil, 23% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
10,988NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
28Operating school count
Students per teacher
15.1Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$13,341Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Billings

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
39.1%
$62,413,000
State revenue
41.2%
$65,754,000
Federal revenue
19.7%
$31,369,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Billings property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 57 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Billings numbers

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

$13,341 per pupil is 23% below the $17,320 metro median; only 22% of tracked districts spend less. Instruction takes 57 cents of each dollar — $7,583 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 39.1% local, 41.2% state — so both the local tax base and the MT aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 19.7% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

10,988 students across 28 schools averages 392 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). That is a small-building district; neighbourhood elementary schools dominate the count. The 15.1:1 student-to-teacher ratio is ordinary for this set of districts (median 15.2:1). It counts all FTE teachers district-wide, so actual class sizes run higher.

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.

Figures cover Billings Elem (LEAID 3003870) as one unit, not any single school in Billings. 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 Billings datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 3003870. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.