Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02

Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02 is a mid-sized primary school in De Smet, South Dakota, part of De Smet School District 38-2. The school educates 176 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Across the 3 schools in De Smet School District 38-2 (362 students total), Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02 accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On demographics, Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02 records that 86% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. The remainder comes out to 6% multiracial, 5% Hispanic.

On the income-and-resources front, Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02 reports 12 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 14.2:1. The state averages around 15.4:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 29% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02 performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 51.1%, the actual is 55.4%, a residual of +4.3 points.

In the surrounding community, census data for Kingsbury County shows the typical household earns roughly $74,000 per year, about 23% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. In all, Kingsbury County runs 17 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,061 students), of which Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02 is one.

Nearest neighbor: De Smet High School - 01, around 0.1 miles off. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02 at 3rd of 5; the average score across the group is 53.6%.

The campus sits in a countryside setting.

Five-year trend. Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - 02's enrollment has expanded 6% since 2018, when it stood at 166 (now 176). White enrollment moved from 95% to 86% across the same window. Class-load math has rose: from 12.3:1 in 2018 to 14.2:1 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.