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Tarrant County · Texas

Fort Worth, TX public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Fort Worth Isd is the primary public district for Fort Worth, TX. It enrolls 72,783 students in 140 schools with 4,928 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $16,504 per pupil, 5% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
72,783NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
140Operating school count
Students per teacher
14.8Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$16,504Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Fort Worth

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
53.6%
$611,266,000
State revenue
29.6%
$337,957,000
Federal revenue
16.8%
$191,238,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Fort Worth property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 41 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Fort Worth numbers

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

Spending of $16,504 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 5 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Only 41 cents of each dollar ($6,755 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 — 53.6% local, 29.6% state — so both the local tax base and the TX aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 16.8% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

72,783 students across 140 schools averages 520 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 14.8:1 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.

Fort Worth Isd is a large city district; figures are the district total (LEAID 4819700) and individual schools inside it vary widely. 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 Fort Worth datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 4819700. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.