Gray Elem School

Located at 3730 N Laramie Ave, in Chicago, Illinois, Gray Elem School is a high-enrollment K-5 school that educates 1,000 students (grades pre-K through 8), one of the schools within Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 162% larger than typical.

Gray Elem School is one of 622 schools operated by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, a district that serves 324,396 students overall.

Demographically, Gray Elem School lists that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (80%). Other groups include 12% White, 2% Asian, 2% Black, 2% multiracial. By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 27% Hispanic, so the school skews noticeably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 67 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.9:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. Roughly 79% of students at Gray Elem School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is north of Cook County's rate of about 66%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Gray Elem School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 25.8%; this one delivers 31.7%.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for Cook County indicate median household income runs about $83,498, about 43% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), Gray Elem School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Portage Park Elem School, roughly 0.6 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Gray Elem School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Gray Elem School at 4th of 9; the average score across the group is 30.9%.

The campus sits in an urban setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Gray Elem School's enrollment has contracted 14% since 2018, when it stood at 1,160 (now 1,000). The Hispanic share of enrollment contracted from 86% to 80% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 17.3:1 in 2018 to 14.9:1 in 2025.

On the community side, the feed for Gray Elem School typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.