East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch

East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch is one of the modestly sized elementary-level communitys in Rock Falls, Illinois, part of East Coloma - Nelson CESD 20, with 214 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 8. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 44% below typical.

East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch is a school of East Coloma - Nelson CESD 20, the district that handles curriculum, staffing, and budget for the campus.

On the student-mix side, East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch reports that White students make up the majority at 73%; the rest reads as 23% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Whiteside County as a whole is about 85% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.9:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 53% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 41.0%; this one delivers 51.0%.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Whiteside County) shows that median household income runs about $67,500, 21% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. Across Whiteside County's 50 public schools (combined enrollment of about 8,445 students), East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Merrill Elem School, around 1.4 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch comes 1st of 7 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 37.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a town-center area.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at East Coloma - Nelson Elem Sch has declined 18%, going from 260 students in 2018 to 214 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share climbed from 13% to 23%.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.