Highlands Elementary School

Set in HIGHLANDS, New Jersey, Highlands Elementary School is a micro-enrollment elementary-level community, one of the schools within Highlands Borough School District. It caters to 160 students across grades pre-K through 6. That puts it 60% leaner than the typical public school in New Jersey, which averages around 405 students.

Highlands Elementary School is a school of Highlands Borough School District, the district that handles curriculum, staffing, and budget for the campus.

On demographics, Highlands Elementary School logs that White students make up the majority at 73%. Other groups include 20% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 3% Black. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 7.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 11.4:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 39% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Monmouth County (around 29%), the school's rate is north of typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Highlands Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 45.0%; this one delivers 38.3%.

In the area at large, Monmouth County reports that median household income runs about $124,845, 51% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Monmouth County runs 186 public schools (combined enrollment of about 91,053 students), of which Highlands Elementary School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Highlands Elementary School, around 0.0 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Highlands Elementary School comes 4th of 4 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 55.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 6 years, enrollment at Highlands Elementary School has fell 20%, going from 200 students in 2018 to 160 in 2024. The Hispanic share of enrollment edged up from 14% to 20% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 9.0:1 in 2018 to 7.7:1 today.

Inside the community feed, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.