Washington Elem School

Set in Champaign, Illinois, Washington Elem School is a close-knit elementary campus, one of the schools within Champaign CUSD 4. It hosts 265 students across grades K through 5. That puts it 30% below the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 381 students.

Champaign CUSD 4 runs 18 schools in total, collectively educating 10,598 students. Washington Elem School is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Washington Elem School lists that 66% of the student body identifies as Black; the rest reads as 12% White, 9% Hispanic, 6% Asian, 6% multiracial. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 14%.

On the resource side, The school employs 14 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 19.6:1. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. About 76% 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, Champaign County runs at roughly 53%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Washington Elem School sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 27.7%; actual is 13.9%, a gap of -13.8 points.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Champaign County) reports that median household earnings sit near $63,683, roughly 46% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Washington Elem School is one of 66 public schools in Champaign County (combined enrollment of about 25,919 students).

Nearest neighbor: M L King Jr Elem School, around 0.4 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Washington Elem School at 6th of 7; the average score across the group is 29.5%.

Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 35%: 408 students in 2018 compared to 265 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share grew from 52% to 66%. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 14.2:1 in 2018 to 19.6:1 today.

On allk12, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.