Original Research by School Decision on Deerfield Elem
Deerfield Elem is a single-school district in Fergus County, Montana, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The district is rural and remote, with a single building, Deerfield School, that houses all of its students. Because the district does not include ninth through twelfth grades, there is no high school and therefore no graduation rate to report.
The district is extraordinarily small. Enrollment numbers show a total student population that is among the tiniest in the state, and every grade between kindergarten and eighth grade has just a handful of students. Racially, all enrolled students are white; the data includes no reported counts for any other racial or ethnic group. Information on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, how many have an individualized education program, and how many are English learners is not available in the source data.
State testing results are suppressed for math and English language arts, and science results are missing entirely. This is a direct consequence of the district’s size: when a tested group is too small, state privacy rules prevent the release of proficiency rates because individual students could be identified. Likewise, participation rates and average scale scores are not reported. For a parent hoping to evaluate academic performance from state assessments, there is nothing to see. The district’s overall proficiency index, a composite measure, could not be calculated for the same reason.
One measure that is available is chronic absenteeism. Among Fergus County’s districts, Deerfield Elem’s chronic absenteeism rate falls below the midpoint, meaning it is higher than the rate in about half of the peer districts in the county. The county’s rates span a wide range, and Deerfield’s position suggests that a notable share of its small student body misses enough school to be counted as chronically absent. A parent moving to the area may want to ask the school directly about attendance patterns and what supports are in place.
Per-pupil current spending sits in the lower range compared to other Fergus County districts. The county contains districts with per-pupil spending that varies significantly, and Deerfield Elem is on the low end of that spectrum. This is typical of very small rural districts, where fixed costs are spread over a small student count, but the raw dollar figure is still relatively low.
The housing context for the area is tied to Lewistown, the county seat, whose zip code is the only one contributing to the district’s weighted home value. Typical home values in this part of central Montana are below both the state and national averages, making the area more affordable than much of the rest of the country. Mortgage rates at the time of this writing are in line with recent national trends.
No information is available on specific programs such as advanced coursework, career and technical education, or extracurricular offerings. The district’s website was searched for recent changes like curriculum updates, bond referendums, or other parent-relevant developments, but none were found in publicly reported sources. This leaves a gap: what the school offers beyond the core academic day is not documented in the data we reviewed.
For a family considering this district, the picture is one of an intimate, rural school where every student is known by name. The lack of testing data is not a sign of weak performance but a byproduct of size. The chronic absenteeism rate and low per-pupil spending are factors to investigate further. Families who want a very small, locally rooted elementary and middle school environment may find Deerfield Elem a natural fit, while those seeking broader programming, diverse peer groups, or measurable academic benchmarks will have little to go on from the available records.
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