What Delaware School Districts Spend Per Student
The median Delaware school district spends $15,646 per student per year, $1,103 above the national median of $14,543, across all 39 districts the state reports. The 16 of them a ZIP code can reach are listed below, and their 115,548 students account for $2.2 billion of current spending in fiscal year 2022.
Delaware at a Glance
| Median district, per student | $15,646 |
|---|---|
| National median district | $14,543 |
| Districts listed | 16 of 39 |
| Students listed | 115,548 |
| Median district, math | ≈40% |
| Median district, reading | ≈51% |
Every Delaware District, by Enrollment
Spending is current spending divided by fall membership for fiscal year 2022. Proficiency and graduation rates are school year 2018-19, the last year before the pandemic interrupted state testing, so the money and the results are not from the same year. A figure marked ≈ is one the federal file published as a range rather than a value, so small groups of children stay unidentifiable; it is the middle of that range and within ten points of the real one. A dash means the federal files publish no value under that district's ID. 23 further Delaware districts are missing because the federal boundary file places them in no ZIP code, which is normal for charter and virtual districts with no attendance area.
| District | Students | Per student | Math | Reading | Graduation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Clay Consolidated School District | 14,837 | $21,267 | 38% | 49% | 89% |
| Christina School District | 13,397 | $26,659 | 34% | 38% | 76% |
| Appoquinimink School District | 12,466 | $15,779 | 50% | 65% | 95% |
| Indian River School District | 10,651 | $17,680 | 52% | 58% | 85% |
| Brandywine School District | 10,401 | $20,248 | 41% | 53% | 87% |
| Colonial School District | 9,531 | $19,934 | 25% | 39% | 84% |
| Caesar Rodney School District | 8,201 | $16,572 | 47% | 63% | 90% |
| Capital School District | 6,384 | $24,337 | 31% | 43% | 85% |
| Cape Henlopen School District | 6,078 | $19,754 | 56% | 65% | 90% |
| Smyrna School District | 6,034 | $15,084 | 47% | 56% | 89% |
| Milford School District | 4,325 | $14,480 | 44% | 51% | 88% |
| Lake Forest School District | 3,544 | $15,646 | 49% | 58% | 78% |
| Seaford School District | 3,222 | $17,673 | 43% | 52% | ≈82% |
| Laurel School District | 2,566 | $14,677 | 37% | 46% | ≈82% |
| Woodbridge School District | 2,495 | $17,263 | 31% | 39% | ≈77% |
| Delmar School District | 1,416 | $11,013 | 41% | 51% | ≈92% |
Sources
Spending and enrollment come from the NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) for fiscal year 2022. Proficiency and graduation rates come from EDFacts for school year 2018-19. Districts are matched to ZIP codes through the NCES EDGE geographic relationship file. Nothing on this page is estimated or modelled: a figure is read from a federal source file or it is left blank.
Questions About Delaware School Spending
Look Up Your Own District
Enter a ZIP code and the calculator returns the district that serves it, what it spends per student, how its students score, and what the same school year costs at home.