Hazel Dell Elem School

As a micro-enrollment elementary-level community in Springfield, Illinois, Hazel Dell Elem School instructs 140 students from grades K through 5, run under Springfield SD 186. That puts it 63% smaller than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 381 students.

Hazel Dell Elem School is one of 31 schools operated by Springfield SD 186, a district that works with 13,014 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Hazel Dell Elem School shows that the most-represented group is Black (54%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder comes out to 31% White, 11% multiracial, 4% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 13% Black, putting the school's mix considerably more Black than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Hazel Dell Elem School has 12 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 11.4:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. Around 76% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Sangamon County runs at roughly 48%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Hazel Dell Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 27.8%, the actual is 31.5%, a residual of +3.7 points.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Sangamon County indicate median household income runs about $75,357, roughly 37% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. Hazel Dell Elem School is one of 77 public schools in Sangamon County (combined enrollment of about 27,345 students).

The closest other public school is Laketown Elem School, roughly 0.9 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Hazel Dell Elem School ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 19.8%.

Geographically, the school is in an outer-ring area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 22%: 180 students in 2018 compared to 140 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 12.5:1 in 2018 to 11.4:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.