Total enrollment
14,045
-316 (-2%) vs SY 2020-21
27 schools in FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT
Arkansas · 14,164 students · 2 cities
FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT runs the local public-school system inside Arkansas: 27 K-12 schools serving roughly 14,164 students, with 19 elementary, 4 middle, and 4 high.
4-year change in FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25School count
26
0 (0%) vs SY 2020-21
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, enrollment-weighted demographic averages
How FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT ranks
Among districts| Measure | This district | In Arkansas | In the US |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 32.2% | #83 of 138 | N/A |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 14,164 | #5 of 208 | #599 of 9,234 |
| Number of schools ranked most first | 27 | #3 of 208 | N/A |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.1:1 | #152 of 190 | #4,480 of 9,044 |
| Free or reduced-price lunch share ranked highest first | 73.1% | #88 of 208 | #1,706 of 8,164 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 70.9% | #3 of 118 | #312 of 6,853 |
Districts need at least 2 schools and 500 students to be ranked. Test proficiency is ranked within the state only, since each state gives a different test. Each rank links to the full list.
Inside FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT
State test results across the district's 25 scored schools run from JOHN P. WOODS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL at 58.9% proficient to TILLES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL at 14.2%, a gap of 44.8 points. That is the 5th widest gap among 69 Arkansas districts with four or more scored schools.
Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across each school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25; schools with fewer than 100 students and schools serving specialized populations are left out. Staffing figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data and count only schools that reported students and teachers in both years.
About FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT
FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT maintains 27 public schools across Arkansas, collectively enrolling roughly 14,164 students.
On the level-by-level breakdown, FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT is built around 19 elementary, 4 middle, and 4 high schools.
On a per-school basis, FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT runs about 525 students per school, 15% meaningfully above the state mean of roughly 456.
Five-year track record. Across the same 4-year window, public-school enrollment stayed largely flat: 14,361 students in SY 2020-21 versus 14,045 in SY 2024-25.
On this page, the community for FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT discusses enrollment trends, district policy changes, and bus-route updates. Anyone with firsthand knowledge of these schools is welcome to weigh in.