Hefferan Elem School

Hefferan Elem School is an elementary campus of low-enrollment scale in Chicago, Illinois, run under Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, teacheing 214 students in grades pre-K through 8. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 44% leaner than typical.

Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 runs 622 schools in total, collectively educating 324,396 students. Hefferan Elem School is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Hefferan Elem School reports that 79% of the student body identifies as Black. Beyond that, the school shows 18% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 22% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Hefferan Elem School logs 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.7:1. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 89% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Cook County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Hefferan Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 20.0%, the actual is 9.2%, a residual of -10.7 points.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Cook County put the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), Hefferan Elem School is one campus in the mix.

Legal Prep Academy Charter HS is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Hefferan Elem School ranks 7th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 15.5%.

The school occupies a downtown site.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Hefferan Elem School has edged down 38%, going from 345 students in 2018 to 214 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share contracted from 98% to 79%. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 21.1:1 in 2018 to 11.7:1 today.

On the community side, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.