Ronald Reagan Elementary

Located at 39-800 Liberty Dr., in Palm Desert, California, Ronald Reagan Elementary is a roomy K-5 school that hosts 808 students (grades K through 5), run under Desert Sands Unified. Compared to the state average of about 465 students per school, that is 74% above typical.

Desert Sands Unified runs 34 schools in total, collectively educating 25,613 students. Ronald Reagan Elementary is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Ronald Reagan Elementary lists that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 74% of enrollment. The remainder comes out to 15% White, 7% multiracial. By comparison, Riverside County as a whole is about 51% Hispanic, so the school skews noticeably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Ronald Reagan Elementary lists 35 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 23.4:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Roughly 59% of students at Ronald Reagan Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is lower than Riverside County's rate of about 74%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Ronald Reagan Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.3%, the actual is 45.7%, a residual of +1.4 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Riverside County put the typical household earns roughly $93,074 per year, about 26% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. In all, Riverside County runs 543 public schools (combined enrollment of about 424,872 students), of which Ronald Reagan Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is James Monroe Elementary, roughly 1.5 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Ronald Reagan Elementary comes 4th of 7 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 40.5%.

Ronald Reagan Elementary operates from a city-core location.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 9%: 892 students in 2018 compared to 808 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 30% to 15% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 24.8:1 in 2018 to 23.4:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.