Benjamin Franklin Middle School

Located at 1200 Outer Park Dr, in Springfield, Illinois, Benjamin Franklin Middle School is a substantial middle-grades school that enrolls 709 students (grades 6 through 8), one of the schools within Springfield SD 186. Compared to the state average of about 462 students per school, that is 53% above typical.

Springfield SD 186 runs 31 schools in total, collectively educating 13,014 students. Benjamin Franklin Middle School is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Benjamin Franklin Middle School logs that the largest single group is Black at 41%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder reads as 33% White, 12% multiracial, 7% Hispanic, 6% Asian. By comparison, Sangamon County as a whole is about 13% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Benjamin Franklin Middle School shows 54 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 13.1:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 53% of students at Benjamin Franklin Middle School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

With demographic context factored in, Benjamin Franklin Middle School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 40.6%; this one delivers 32.9%.

In the surrounding community, census data for Sangamon County shows median household income runs about $75,357, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. Benjamin Franklin Middle School is one of 77 public schools in Sangamon County (combined enrollment of about 27,345 students).

The closest other public school is Butler Elem School, roughly 0.6 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Benjamin Franklin Middle School comes 4th of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 30.3%.

The school occupies a city-core site.

Looking at the recent track record. Benjamin Franklin Middle School's enrollment has contracted 10% since 2018, when it stood at 788 (now 709). Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 46% to 33%. Class-load math has fell: from 15.9:1 in 2018 to 13.1:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.