Highlands Elem School

Highlands Elem School is a cozy elementary-level community in Hazel Crest, Illinois, overseen by Prairie-Hills ESD 144. The school works with 311 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Within Prairie-Hills ESD 144, which oversees 9 schools and 2,473 students, Highlands Elem School is one campus in the system.

Demographically, Highlands Elem School reports that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (90%). Other groups include 7% Hispanic, 3% multiracial. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 22%.

On the resource side, The school currently runs with 11 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 28.3:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. About 94% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Cook County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, Highlands Elem School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 17.5% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 17.7%.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Cook County shows the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, roughly 43% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Highlands Elem School is one of 1406 public schools in Cook County (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students).

The closest other public school is Nob Hill Elem School, roughly 0.4 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Highlands Elem School ranks 5th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 19.4%.

The school occupies a bedroom-community site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 5%: 329 students in 2018 compared to 311 in 2025. Class-load math has widened: from 18.3:1 in 2018 to 28.3:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.