Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm

Located at 402 Richards St, in Joliet, Illinois, Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm is a big middle-grades school that caters to 724 students (grades 6 through 8), run under Joliet PSD 86. Enrollment runs roughly 57% bigger than the state mean of about 462.

Joliet PSD 86 runs 20 schools in total, collectively educating 9,333 students. Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm records that Hispanic students make up the majority at 73%. Other groups include 20% Black, 4% White, 3% 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, Staff filings list 51 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.2:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Around 98% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Will County runs at roughly 44%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 14.6%, the actual is 21.0%, a residual of +6.3 points.

In the area at large, Will County reports that median household income runs about $109,984, 38% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across Will County's 209 public schools (combined enrollment of about 113,008 students), Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Edna Keith Elem School, around 0.1 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 20.1%.

Geographically, the school is in an outer-ring area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Washington Jr High & Academy Prgm has ticked down 13%, going from 829 students in 2018 to 724 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment climbed from 55% to 73% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 15.9:1 in 2018 to 14.2:1 today.

On allk12, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.