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King County · Washington

Seattle, WA public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Seattle School District No. 1 — federal education data, not a star rating.

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

Quick answer

Seattle School District No. 1 is the primary public district for Seattle, WA. It enrolls 51,238 students in 109 schools with 3,165 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $20,647 per pupil, 19% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
51,238NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
109Operating school count
Students per teacher
16.2Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$20,647Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Seattle

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
40.5%
$527,761,000
State revenue
50.9%
$663,112,000
Federal revenue
8.6%
$112,105,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Seattle property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 53 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Seattle numbers

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

At $20,647 per pupil the district spends 19% more than the $17,320 metro median, outspending 68% of the districts covered. Instruction takes 53 cents of each dollar — $10,950 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 40.5% local, 50.9% state — so both the local tax base and the WA aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal aid contributes 8.6%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

51,238 students across 109 schools averages 470 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 16.2:1 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 Seattle School District No. 1 (LEAID 5307710) as one unit, not any single school in Seattle. 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 Seattle datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 5307710. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.