Whittier Elem School

Whittier Elem School, a mid-tier elementary-level community in Waukegan, Illinois, overseen by Waukegan CUSD 60, caters to 438 students, covering grades K through 5.

Within Waukegan CUSD 60, which oversees 22 schools and 13,640 students, Whittier Elem School is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Whittier Elem School shows that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (86%). Beyond that, the school logs 9% Black, 3% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 25% Hispanic, putting the school's mix noticeably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Whittier Elem School shows 37 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. About 69% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Lake County runs at roughly 54%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Whittier Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 31.6%, the actual is 21.6%, a residual of -10.0 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Lake County) logs that median household earnings sit near $110,416, about 48% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. Whittier Elem School is one of 214 public schools in Lake County (combined enrollment of about 118,032 students).

Edith M Smith Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Whittier Elem School at 3rd of 8; the average score across the group is 21.8%.

The campus sits in an outer-ring setting.

Five-year trend. Whittier Elem School's enrollment has shrank 25% since 2018, when it stood at 586 (now 438). The Hispanic share of enrollment climbed from 79% to 86% over that span. Class-load math has fell: from 14.7:1 in 2018 to 11.8:1 in 2025.

On allk12, members of the Whittier Elem School community share and discuss school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.