Hot Springs Elementary - 02

Set in Hot Springs, South Dakota, Hot Springs Elementary - 02 is a roomy K-5 school, run under Hot Springs School District 23-2. It serves 306 students across grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 50% bigger than the state mean of about 204.

Hot Springs School District 23-2 runs 3 schools in total, collectively educating 710 students. Hot Springs Elementary - 02 is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Hot Springs Elementary - 02 logs that the largest single group is White, at 70% of enrollment. Other groups include 10% multiracial, 10% Native American, 8% Hispanic. By comparison, Fall River County as a whole is about 84% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, The school lists 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 12.4:1. The state averages around 15.4:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 36% of students at Hot Springs Elementary - 02 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Hot Springs Elementary - 02 performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.4%, the actual is 38.0%, a residual of -10.5 points.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Fall River County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $67,917 per year, about 29% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 12%. Across Fall River County's 8 public schools (combined enrollment of about 953 students), Hot Springs Elementary - 02 is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Hot Springs Middle School - 06, roughly 0.2 miles away. Within five miles, there are 2 other public schools. Among the 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Hot Springs Elementary - 02 ranks 4th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 40.0%.

The school occupies an outlying site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 18%: 375 students in 2018 compared to 306 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 4% to 8% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 14.3:1 in 2018 to 12.4:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.