Palos East Elementary School

Palos East Elementary School operates as a heavily attended primary school in Palos Heights, Illinois, operated by Palos CCSD 118. Current enrollment sits at 705 students spanning grades K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 85% above the state mean of about 381.

Palos CCSD 118 comprises 3 schools with combined enrollment of 2,122 students; Palos East Elementary School is among them.

On the student-mix side, Palos East Elementary School records that 77% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder comes out to 15% Hispanic, 3% Asian, 3% Black, 3% multiracial. That is meaningfully more White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 44%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 57 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 12.5:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 36% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is lower than Cook County's rate of about 66%.

After controlling for student poverty, Palos East Elementary School ranks in the top 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 50.7%; Palos East Elementary School posts 65.0%, +14.3 points above that line.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Cook County) shows that median household earnings sit near $83,498, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Cook County runs 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), of which Palos East Elementary School is one.

The closest other public school is Palos South Middle School, roughly 1.0 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Palos East Elementary School. On composite proficiency, Palos East Elementary School comes 2nd of 4 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 48.4%.

The campus sits in a commuter-belt setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Palos East Elementary School has expanded 11%, going from 634 students in 2018 to 705 in 2025. The White share of enrollment edged down from 82% to 77% over that span. Class-load math has pulled in: from 15.8:1 in 2018 to 12.5:1 in 2025.

On allk12, the feed for Palos East Elementary School typically covers classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.