Bellingham High School

Bellingham High School is a 9-12 campus of big scale in Bellingham, Washington, overseen by Bellingham School District, works with 1,165 students in grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 573 students per school, that is 103% above typical.

Within Bellingham School District, which oversees 25 schools and 11,337 students, Bellingham High School is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, Bellingham High School records that 68% of the student body identifies as White. Beyond that, the school logs 18% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 2% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 78% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully less White than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school lists 55 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 21.3:1. The state averages about 21.6:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Around 35% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Whatcom County (around 47%), the school's rate is noticeably below typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Bellingham High School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 56.4%, the actual is 51.7%, a residual of -4.7 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Whatcom County) reports that median household earnings sit near $81,784, 39% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, Whatcom County runs 78 public schools (combined enrollment of about 27,779 students), of which Bellingham High School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Options High School, around 0.1 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Bellingham High School comes 3rd of 6 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 51.6%.

Bellingham High School operates from a downtown location.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Bellingham High School has climbed 4%, going from 1,119 students in 2018 to 1,165 in 2025.

On this page, members of the Bellingham High School community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.