Sampson County Schools
Sampson County, NC · Rural · grades PK–13 · 7,986 students across 18 schools
- Spends $12,793 per student in operating costs — $13,563 once local price levels are accounted for.
- 65.0% of every operating dollar reaches instruction.
- 14.1% of revenue is raised locally, mostly from property tax.
The money
| Per student, as reported | $12,793 |
|---|---|
| Per student, price-adjusted Adjusted for the local price level, so it can be set against a district anywhere else. | $13,563 |
| Per student, excluding transport | $13,004 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land. Lumpy by nature. | Locked |
| Total revenue | Locked |
| Total current spending | Locked |
| Local price level (US = 100) Statewide adjustment: this district is outside a metro area. | 94.3 |
Where the money goes
- Instruction 61.3% Locked
- Instructional staff support 3.7% Locked
- Student support 5.5% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 8.6% Locked
- Transportation 4.1% Locked
- Food service 6.9% Locked
- School administration 6.2% Locked
- District administration 0.9% Locked
- Other support 2.8% Locked
- Other current 6.9% Locked
What the money buys
| Students per teacher A staffing ratio, not an average class size. Real classes are larger than this everywhere. | 17.1 |
|---|---|
| Students per counselor | Locked |
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms | 65.0% |
| Administration share | 7.1% |
| Child poverty rate Children 5 to 17 in poverty inside the district boundary. | 24.9% |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -2.4% |
Stability and risk
- Federal cliff exposure More than 20% of revenue is federal, a share that is unusually exposed when temporary federal programmes end.
Against the rest of NC
| Sampson County Schools | NC average | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $12,793 | $14,234 |
| Reaching classrooms | 65.0% | 63.5% |
| Local share of revenue | 14.1% | 21.7% |
Average across 116 NC districts, unweighted by size.
Districts most like this one
Nearest neighbours on size, child poverty, the local price level and spending, over the same grade span. These are the fair comparisons, so we made each one a link.
These are the districts yours is fairly judged against. Where one of them does something differently, that is a question your board can answer at a meeting — it is not a reason to move.
Enrolling a child
Every “required” below links to the sentence it came from.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrollment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
- Required the page says so, and the sentence is quoted.
- Mentioned only it comes up, but not as a requirement — often a sentence saying the district cannot demand it.
- Not mentioned we read the page and it was not on it. That is not the same as "not required".
- Page not read we have no enrollment page for this district.
Documents to bring
| Sampson County Schools | |
|---|---|
| Proof of residency | Required “Current water, gas, tax, or electric bill in the parent's name that is no more than 30 days old, or A newly signed lease that is no more than 60 days old, or S…” |
| Proof of age (usually a birth certificate) | Required “A certified or clear, readable copy of your child's birth certificate.” |
| Immunisation records | Required “Your child's immunization record.” |
| Physical examination | Required “If you are enrolling a student new to Sampson County Schools, you are required to complete a North Carolina Health Assessment Transmittal Form.” |
| Dental, vision or hearing screening | Required “Open Health Assessment form here North Carolina state law requires a Comprehensive Vision Screening by a healthcare provider prior to beginning kindergarten.” |
| Tuberculosis test | Not mentioned |
| Records from the previous school | Not mentioned |
| IEP or 504 plan | Not mentioned |
| Custody or guardianship paperwork | Required “Any custody documents.” |
| Parent or guardian photo ID | Not mentioned |
| Home language survey | Not mentioned |
| Emergency contact information | Not mentioned |
| Proof of income | Not mentioned |
| Social security number Asked for by some districts. It is not required to enrol, and a school may not refuse a child who does not provide one. We list it because districts ask, not because you must answer. | Not mentioned |
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments, proof of residency — are not shown. What to bring is above, and stays free.
- A blank row means the requirement did not appear on the district’s page. It does not mean the district will not ask for it — published lists are routinely incomplete, and the registrar has the final word.
- Requirements change every enrollment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrollment on your child’s immigration status: under Plyler v. Doe (1982) every child resident in the district is entitled to a free public education. If a district asks for something that would reveal status, you are not obliged to provide it.
- If your family is in temporary or shared housing, the McKinney-Vento Act lets a child enrol immediately without the residency and records documents listed here. Ask for the district’s homeless liaison by name.
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what this district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Sampson County Schools
The county or town levies it, not the district
This school system reports no property tax of its own. It is a dependent system: the county or city levies the tax and appropriates money to the schools. You still pay school property tax — the school board simply is not the body that sets it, and the appropriation is argued out at the county or city council.
| Sampson County Schools | |
|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | — |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | $1,385 |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | — |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $0 |
- Sampson County Schools: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. It records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Funding measures on the ballot
Sampson County Schools
We hold every school funding measure the state of NC published for 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024, and this district appears in none of them.
What this state publishes: County school bond referenda only, from 2013 on. North Carolina's largest school money question is the local sales-and-use tax, and its ballot never mentions schools, so it cannot be told apart from any other county sales tax and is not read. Bonds in counties with more than one school unit are not attributed to either.
What this band does not answer yet
What they plan, and what they teach from
No state publishes what its districts teach from. This is the district’s own page, in its own words.
No curriculum or plan page is available for this district, so there is nothing to report either way.
- Programmes are only ever listed when the district names one in writing on its own site, and the sentence it used is shown beside it. We never infer a programme from a description of teaching style — “a balanced literacy approach” is not a curriculum, and printing it as one would invent an adoption the district never made.
- A plan document is listed as the district’s plan index listed it. We record that the document exists and where it is, not what it says.
The detailed figures for Sampson County Schools
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student, total revenue and total current spending
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counselor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
$1 for this district, for three months.
The 3-month unlock is a single payment and does not renew; it simply ends. A subscription renews, monthly or yearly as chosen, until you cancel. No account to create: this purchase is held in this browser, so clearing site data or moving to another browser loses it, and the phone apps sell their own unlock through their own store. What to do if you lose it.