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Hamilton County · Tennessee

Chattanooga, TN public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Hamilton County is the primary public district for Chattanooga, TN. It enrolls 45,902 students in 81 schools with 3,041 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $11,709 per pupil, 32% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
45,902NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
81Operating school count
Students per teacher
15.1Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$11,709Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Chattanooga

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
51.1%
$272,405,000
State revenue
35.4%
$188,337,000
Federal revenue
13.5%
$71,914,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Chattanooga 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 Chattanooga numbers

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

This is a low-spending district: $11,709 per pupil, 32% under the $17,320 median and near the bottom of the metros tracked here. Instruction takes 57 cents of each dollar — $6,663 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 51.1% local, 35.4% state — so both the local tax base and the TN aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal aid contributes 13.5%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

45,902 students across 81 schools averages 567 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). 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.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Hamilton County is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Chattanooga 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 Chattanooga datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 4701590. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.