Shorewood Elementary

Shorewood Elementary is a mid-tier elementary campus in Burien, Washington, operated by Highline School District. The school serves 400 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Highline School District runs 36 schools in total, collectively educating 18,072 students. Shorewood Elementary is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Shorewood Elementary shows that the most-represented group is White (28%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest consists of 25% Hispanic, 19% Asian, 14% multiracial, 11% Black. The wider county runs roughly 55% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Shorewood Elementary logs 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 16.0:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.3:1 average. About 58% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is noticeably above King County's rate of about 38%.

With demographic context factored in, Shorewood Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 41.3%; this one delivers 41.7%.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for King County put the typical household earns roughly $124,746 per year, roughly 57% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 5%. Across King County's 544 public schools (combined enrollment of about 278,492 students), Shorewood Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Arbor Heights Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.9 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Shorewood Elementary. On composite proficiency, Shorewood Elementary comes 3rd of 7 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 34.2%.

The school occupies a commuter-belt site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 36%: 626 students in 2018 compared to 400 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 36% to 28%. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 20.0:1 in 2018 to 16.0:1 today.

On the community side, the feed for Shorewood Elementary typically covers school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.