Knapp Forest Elementary School

Knapp Forest Elementary School, a medium-sized K-5 school in GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, operated by Forest Hills Public Schools, serves 520 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 369 students per school, that is 41% larger than typical.

Knapp Forest Elementary School is one of 18 schools operated by Forest Hills Public Schools, a district that serves 8,797 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Knapp Forest Elementary School lists that 84% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority; the rest looks like 7% Asian, 5% multiracial, 4% Hispanic. By comparison, Kent County as a whole is about 73% White, so the school skews considerably more White than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 17.8:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 15.8:1, putting Knapp Forest Elementary School higher than the state norm the norm. About 6% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Kent County runs at roughly 47%, so the school's eligibility rate is lower than the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Knapp Forest Elementary School ranks in the top 10% of Michigan public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 63.8%; Knapp Forest Elementary School posts 82.4%, +18.6 points above that line.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Kent County indicate the typical household earns roughly $82,631 per year, roughly 41% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Knapp Forest Elementary School is one of 239 public schools in Kent County (combined enrollment of about 97,253 students).

The closest other public school is Northern Hills Middle School, roughly 1.3 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Knapp Forest Elementary School comes 1st of 4 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 65.2%.

The campus sits in an outer-ring setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 23%: 671 students in 2018 compared to 520 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 18.9:1 in 2018 to 17.8:1 today.

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