$16,827 per pupil: West Virginia school districts’ spending in fiscal 2025, district by district

Spending per pupil in 55 West Virginia school districts, fiscal 2025: median $16,827, range $13,711 to $28,320. Every figure from WVDE public records, with what the figure includes and leaves out.

Half of the 55 West Virginia school districts that run both elementary and high school grades recorded spending of more than $16,827 per pupil for fiscal 2025, and half recorded less. That middle figure, the median, comes from the Every Student Succeeds Act per-pupil expenditure file published by the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE). It is the most recent year DistrictFacts publishes for the state.

The lowest figure among those districts is $13,711 per pupil, at Hardy County Schools (2,154 students enrolled, 2025–26). The highest is $28,320, at Wetzel County Schools (1,979 students enrolled, 2025–26), about 2.1 times the lowest. The middle half of districts fall between $15,898 and $18,549.

Spending per pupil, fiscal 2025: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest of 55 West Virginia districts

Hardy County Schools
$13,711
Randolph County Schools
$14,072
Preston County Schools
$14,220
Upshur County Schools
$14,319
Hampshire County Schools
$15,176
Marshall County Schools
$22,221
Brooke County Schools
$23,080
Doddridge County Schools
$26,456
Tyler County Schools
$26,528
Wetzel County Schools
$28,320

10 of 55 districts shown: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest. Bars start at zero and the line marks the median of all 55, $16,827. Each bar links to the district’s page.

West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), Every Student Succeeds Act per-pupil expenditure file, fiscal 2025

The largest district

Kanawha County Schools is the largest West Virginia system reporting this figure, with 22,132 students enrolled (2025–26). Its figure is $15,330 per pupil for fiscal 2025, 9% below the $16,827 median of the 55 districts compared here. The DistrictFacts homepage compares the same figure with a wider group: all 60 West Virginia systems reporting it for the year, including the kinds of district left out here. That median is $16,814, and Kanawha County Schools is 9% below it.

What “spending per pupil” means in West Virginia

In West Virginia the figure is the district total in WVDE’s Every Student Succeeds Act per-pupil expenditure file: actual spending from state, local and federal funds, at school sites plus the shared central-office spending, divided by the district’s enrolled students. The published description lists no category of spending left out. It is actual spending, not the county board’s proposed budget.

Each state defines this figure differently: what spending is counted, and which count of students it is divided by. The West Virginia figure should not be set beside another state’s, and DistrictFacts does not rank states on it.

Which districts are counted

DistrictFacts publishes pages for 64 West Virginia districts and other local education agencies. 60 of them report this figure for fiscal 2025. The median and the range above cover 55: regular school districts whose schools span both elementary and high school grades. The other 5 are left out so that different kinds of district are not mixed in one median:

Of the remaining 4, 1 has a figure only for an earlier year and 3 have no published figure for the year. A missing or withheld figure is not counted as zero; it is left out of the median.

What this does not tell you

A per-pupil figure does not show whether money was spent well, and it is not a measure of school quality. Districts differ in the students they serve, the services they must provide and their size. In a district with few students, a small change in spending or in the pupil count moves the figure a long way. This is one year of data and it says nothing about the trend. A useful question to ask a district is what is included in its figure and how it has changed over time; each district page linked here shows the detail and the source file.

This report was generated from public records by the DistrictFacts Data Desk. Every figure in it is read from the Every Student Succeeds Act per-pupil expenditure file of the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), as published on the district pages; none was typed by hand. The method is described on the DistrictFacts methodology page, and a correction can be requested from this story.

Sources

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