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Minnehaha County · South Dakota

Sioux Falls, SD public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Sioux Falls School District 49-5 — federal education data, not a star rating.

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

Quick answer

Sioux Falls School District 49-5 is the primary public district for Sioux Falls, SD. It enrolls 25,123 students in 43 schools with 1,683 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $13,249 per pupil, 24% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
25,123NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
43Operating school count
Students per teacher
14.9Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$13,249Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Sioux Falls

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
48.7%
$151,301,000
State revenue
35.5%
$110,338,000
Federal revenue
15.7%
$48,875,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Sioux Falls property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 45 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Sioux Falls numbers

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

$13,249 per pupil is 24% below the $17,320 metro median; only 19% of tracked districts spend less. Only 45 cents of each dollar ($5,975 per student) is classified as instruction, so a large share goes to support services, facilities and transport — common in districts with long bus routes or older buildings.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 48.7% local, 35.5% state — so both the local tax base and the SD aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 15.7% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

25,123 students across 43 schools averages 584 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 14.9:1 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.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Figures cover Sioux Falls School District 49-5 (LEAID 4666270) as one unit, not any single school in Sioux Falls. 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 Sioux Falls datasets on this site.

Statewide: South Dakota cities · South Dakota ZIP codes · South Dakota sales tax · South Dakota counties

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

NCES LEAID 4666270. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.