William Hatch Elem School

Located at 1000 N Ridgeland Ave, in Oak Park, Illinois, William Hatch Elem School is a reasonably sized elementary-level community that educates 358 students (grades pre-K through 5), operated by Oak Park ESD 97.

Within Oak Park ESD 97, which oversees 10 schools and 5,560 students, William Hatch Elem School is one campus in the system.

Demographically, William Hatch Elem School records that the largest single group is White at 49%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder breaks down as 18% Black, 15% multiracial, 14% Hispanic.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.2:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.9:1, putting William Hatch Elem School tighter than the state norm the norm. Around 18% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is noticeably below Cook County's rate of about 66%.

With demographic context factored in, William Hatch Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 61.0%, the actual is 63.5%, a residual of +2.5 points.

In the broader community, Cook County reports that median household earnings sit near $83,498, about 43% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Cook County runs 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), of which William Hatch Elem School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Whittier Elem School, around 0.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around William Hatch Elem School. On composite proficiency, William Hatch Elem School comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 41.6%.

The campus sits in a residential setting.

Over the past 7-year window. William Hatch Elem School's enrollment has contracted 4% since 2018, when it stood at 372 (now 358). White enrollment moved from 53% to 49% across the same window. Class-load math has pulled in: from 14.9:1 in 2018 to 13.2:1 in 2025.

On the community side, the feed for William Hatch Elem School typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.