Taft Elementary

Taft Elementary operates as a low-enrollment elementary campus in Orange, California, part of Orange Unified. Current enrollment sits at 387 students spanning grades K through 6.

Orange Unified runs 40 schools in total, collectively educating 23,790 students. Taft Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Taft Elementary lists that nearly all students (88%) are Hispanic. Other groups include 5% White, 3% Asian, 3% multiracial. By comparison, Orange County as a whole is about 34% Hispanic, so the school skews noticeably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 26.3:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Around 89% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Orange County runs at roughly 55%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Taft Elementary is in the OUTPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations model, which fits a per-state line through proficiency and FRL share. Schools with this campus's poverty mix typically land near 26.5%; this one delivers 42.9%, a residual of +16.4 points.

In the surrounding community, Orange County reports that the typical household earns roughly $116,289 per year, 44% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Across Orange County's 649 public schools (combined enrollment of about 430,458 students), Taft Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Explore Academy, roughly 0.4 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Taft Elementary comes 4th of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 41.2%.

The campus sits in a downtown setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Taft Elementary has contracted 36%, going from 605 students in 2018 to 387 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 92% to 88% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 29.5:1 in 2018 to 26.3:1 today.

On allk12, the feed for Taft Elementary typically covers classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.