Fulton Elem School

Fulton Elem School is an elementary-level community of reasonably sized scale in Fulton, Illinois, one of the schools within River Bend CUSD 2, instructing 421 students in grades K through 5.

Fulton Elem School is one of 4 schools operated by River Bend CUSD 2, a district that hosts 998 students overall.

On demographics, Fulton Elem School logs that the student body is overwhelmingly White (86%). Beyond that, the school logs 8% multiracial, 5% Hispanic. That composition is broadly in line with Whiteside County as a whole.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.5:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 13.9:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Roughly 42% of students at Fulton Elem School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is noticeably below Whiteside County's rate of about 55%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Fulton Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 47.1%, the actual is 43.4%, a residual of -3.7 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Whiteside County put the typical household earns roughly $67,500 per year, 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), Fulton Elem School is one campus in the mix.

River Bend Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 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 Fulton Elem School at 7th of 8; the average score across the group is 59.2%.

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

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Fulton Elem School has climbed 6%, going from 396 students in 2018 to 421 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share edged down from 94% to 86%.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.