Highlands Elementary

Set in San Mateo, California, Highlands Elementary is a tight-knit elementary school, part of San Mateo-Foster City. It educates 379 students across grades K through 5.

Within San Mateo-Foster City, which oversees 22 schools and 9,906 students, Highlands Elementary is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Highlands Elementary lists that the largest single group is Hispanic at 29%, but no single group is in the majority; the rest breaks down as 27% Asian, 25% White, 18% multiracial. Compared to San Mateo County overall, the school's racial mix sits in roughly the same range.

On the income-and-resources front, The school lists 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 20.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Roughly 27% of students at Highlands Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Highlands Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 63.2%, the actual is 55.1%, a residual of -8.1 points.

Around the school, census data for San Mateo County shows the typical household earns roughly $158,855 per year, 54% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, San Mateo County runs 176 public schools (combined enrollment of about 82,403 students), of which Highlands Elementary is one.

Hillcrest at Youth Services Center is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.0 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Highlands Elementary at 5th of 7; the average score across the group is 65.4%.

The school occupies a commuter-belt site.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Highlands Elementary has declined 32%, going from 554 students in 2018 to 379 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 39% to 25% across the same window. Class-load math has narrowed: from 25.2:1 in 2018 to 20.8:1 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.