John E. Riley Elementary School

John E. Riley Elementary School is an elementary-level community of average-sized scale in South Plainfield, New Jersey, operated by South Plainfield School District, educateing 367 students in grades K through 4.

Within South Plainfield School District, which oversees 9 schools and 3,767 students, John E. Riley Elementary School is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, John E. Riley Elementary School records that the most-represented group is Hispanic (46%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder looks like 32% White, 10% Black, 7% Asian, 5% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 24% Hispanic, putting the school's mix noticeably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, John E. Riley Elementary School has 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 10.3:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 11.4:1 average. About 39% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

After controlling for student poverty, John E. Riley Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.8%, the actual is 47.5%, a residual of +2.7 points.

Around the school, census data for Middlesex County shows the typical household earns roughly $111,549 per year, roughly 46% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across Middlesex County's 214 public schools (combined enrollment of about 129,255 students), John E. Riley Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Riley Preschool Annex, around 0.1 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), John E. Riley Elementary School ranks 1st on composite proficiency, above the local average of 31.0%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged up 12%: 328 students in 2018 compared to 367 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 47% to 32% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 13.7:1 in 2018 to 10.3:1 today.

On this page, members of the John E. Riley Elementary School community share and discuss classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.