Detroit Public Schools Community District served 48,828 students across 104 schools in the 2024–2025 school year. The district covered prekindergarten through grade 12, employed 3,031.85 classroom-teacher FTE, and reported $1.459 billion in total revenue. These figures describe the district’s scale, staffing structure, and finances for that measurement period.
Contents
- District size and enrollment
- Classroom staffing
- Student services and administration
- Revenue sources
- Expenditures and student costs
- How current spending was allocated
District size and enrollment
The Detroit Public Schools Community District had 104 total schools in 2024–2025. The district served the full span from prekindergarten through grade 12, making its reported enrollment a districtwide measure that includes early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students. Enrollment totaled 48,828 students.
The district reported a student/teacher ratio of 16.11. This ratio is presented by the National Center for Education Statistics alongside the district’s staffing and enrollment measures; it should be read as a district-level statistic rather than as the size of every individual classroom. The district employed 6,928.08 staff FTE in total, while classroom teachers accounted for 3,031.85 FTE.
The difference between total staff FTE and classroom-teacher FTE reflects the district’s wider operating structure. Staffing also included instructional aides, counselors, administrators, support personnel, and other staff categories. In other words, the enrollment figure is supported by a workforce that extends well beyond classroom teaching positions.
Source for all figures in this article: NCES District Detail, 2024–2025. The statistics describe Detroit Public Schools Community District for that school year.
Classroom staffing
The district’s 3,031.85 classroom-teacher FTE were distributed across several grade-related categories. Elementary teachers represented the largest reported category at 1,267.85 FTE, followed by secondary teachers at 1,125.10 FTE. Ungraded teachers totaled 300.50 FTE. Prekindergarten teachers totaled 171.00 FTE, and kindergarten teachers totaled 167.40 FTE.
| Classroom teaching category | FTE |
|---|---|
| Prekindergarten | 171.00 |
| Kindergarten | 167.40 |
| Elementary | 1,267.85 |
| Secondary | 1,125.10 |
| Ungraded | 300.50 |
| Total classroom teachers | 3,031.85 |
These categories show how the reported teacher workforce was organized in the NCES district detail. Elementary and secondary positions together accounted for 2,392.95 FTE, while the remaining reported teacher categories covered prekindergarten, kindergarten, and ungraded assignments. The figures are FTE measures, so they describe staffing capacity in full-time-equivalent terms rather than a simple headcount of individual employees.
Instructional aides totaled 1,129.00 FTE. That category was separate from classroom teachers and represents another substantial part of the district’s instructional workforce. The district also reported 89.00 FTE for instructional coordinators and supervisors, positions connected to instructional organization and oversight.
Student services and administration
Student-facing support positions formed another part of the district’s staffing profile. Total guidance counselors accounted for 139.80 FTE. Within that total, elementary guidance counselors accounted for 74.00 FTE and secondary guidance counselors accounted for 64.80 FTE. School psychologists totaled 31.00 FTE.
The district reported 1.00 FTE for librarians and media specialists, plus 1.00 FTE for library and media support staff. These are distinct categories in the NCES staffing detail. Student support services without psychology totaled 749.70 FTE, while other support services totaled 939.73 FTE.
This staffing detail also helps put the student/teacher ratio in context. The ratio of 16.11 is paired with 3,031.85 classroom-teacher FTE, but the district’s full staff total was 6,928.08 FTE. Counseling, psychology, aides, administrative roles, and other support services therefore belong to the broader staffing picture even though they are not classroom-teacher positions. Each number answers a different question about how the district was organized during the reported school year.
Administrative staffing included both district-level and school-level roles. District administrators totaled 286.00 FTE, and district administrative support totaled 45.00 FTE. At the school level, administrators totaled 221.00 FTE and school administrative support totaled 264.00 FTE.
Taken together, these figures identify several layers of staffing that sit alongside teaching positions: counseling, psychology, instructional coordination, student support, operations, and administration. They should not be combined into a new total here because the published categories may serve different functions and the supplied figures do not provide a separate reconciliation statement for every category.
Revenue sources
Total revenue was $1,458,971,000 in 2024–2025. Revenue per student was reported as $30,052. The district’s revenue was divided among federal, local, and state sources in the NCES district detail.
| Revenue source | Total revenue | Per student | Share of total revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal | $655,823,000 | $13,509 | 45% |
| Local | $115,373,000 | $2,376 | 8% |
| State | $687,775,000 | $14,167 | 47% |
State revenue was the largest of the three reported sources at $687,775,000, or 47% of total revenue. State revenue per student was $14,167. Federal revenue totaled $655,823,000, or 45% of total revenue, with federal revenue per student reported at $13,509. Local revenue totaled $115,373,000, or 8% of total revenue, with local revenue per student reported at $2,376.
The source mix matters when interpreting Detroit school statistics because the district’s reported resources were not drawn primarily from one category alone. State and federal revenue represented the two largest listed shares, while local revenue represented a smaller 8% share. The percentages are the supplied NCES figures for the 2024–2025 district detail and are not an independent estimate.
Expenditures and student costs
Total expenditures were $1,123,599,000, and total expenditures per student were $23,144. Total current expenditures were $1,068,171,000, with current expenditures per student reported as $22,002.
The distinction between total expenditures and total current expenditures is important. The two measures are reported separately in the NCES district detail, so they should not be treated as interchangeable. Total expenditures provide the broader reported amount, while current expenditures identify the current-spending measure used for the category shares below.
Instructional expenditures totaled $502,535,000. On a per-student basis, instructional expenditures were $10,351, and instructional spending represented 47% of current expenditures. Student and staff support expenditures totaled $192,973,000, or $3,975 per student, and represented 18% of current expenditures.
Administration expenditures totaled $161,946,000. Administration spending was $3,336 per student and represented 15% of current expenditures. Operations, food service, and other expenditures totaled $210,717,000, or $4,340 per student, representing 20% of current expenditures.
How current spending was allocated
The reported current-expenditure categories provide a compact view of how the district described its operating spending. Instruction was the largest listed category at 47% of current expenditures. Operations, food service, and other expenditures accounted for 20%, followed by student and staff support at 18% and administration at 15%.
| Current-expenditure category | Amount | Per student | Share of current expenditures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instructional | $502,535,000 | $10,351 | 47% |
| Student and staff support | $192,973,000 | $3,975 | 18% |
| Administration | $161,946,000 | $3,336 | 15% |
| Operations, food service, and other | $210,717,000 | $4,340 | 20% |
The category labels describe the accounting groupings supplied in the NCES district detail. Instructional expenditures were the largest listed amount, while operations, food service, and other expenditures formed the second-largest listed amount. Student and staff support spending was reported separately from administration, which allows the district’s support and management costs to be viewed as different categories.
The per-student figures use the district’s reported measures: $22,002 for total current expenditures, $10,351 for instruction, $3,975 for student and staff support, $3,336 for administration, and $4,340 for operations, food service, and other expenditures. These values are presented as published rather than recomputed.
For readers examining Detroit school statistics through a design and creative work lens, the staffing and spending figures offer context about the institution’s scale without assigning outcomes that are not measured here. The available statistics establish enrollment, staff capacity, revenue composition, and expenditure categories for Detroit Public Schools Community District in 2024–2025. They do not, by themselves, measure academic performance, school quality, student experience, or creative-program availability.