Hufford Junior High School

Hufford Junior High School is a middle-grades school of well-populated scale in Joliet, Illinois, operated by Joliet PSD 86, caters to 1,072 students in grades 6 through 8. That puts it 132% bigger than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 462 students.

Across the 20 schools in Joliet PSD 86 (9,333 students total), Hufford Junior High School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, Hufford Junior High School logs that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 65% of enrollment. Other groups include 19% Black, 12% White, 4% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 20% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Hufford Junior High School lists 81 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 13.2:1. The state averages about 13.0:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 97% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Will County runs at roughly 44%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Hufford Junior High School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 15.3%; this one delivers 22.2%.

Across the wider county, Will County reports that median household earnings sit near $109,984, about 38% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across Will County's 209 public schools (combined enrollment of about 113,008 students), Hufford Junior High School is one campus in the mix.

Carl Sandburg Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Hufford Junior High School. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Hufford Junior High School ranks 5th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 25.8%.

Hufford Junior High School operates from an outer-ring location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Hufford Junior High School's enrollment has contracted 8% since 2018, when it stood at 1,170 (now 1,072). Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 55% to 65%. Class-load math has tightened: from 16.3:1 in 2018 to 13.2:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Hufford Junior High School community share and discuss pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.