Enrollment
288
Elementary
DISTRICT 344 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530042000116
Sunnyland Elementary School
2800 James St, Bellingham, WA 98225 · (360) 676-6446 · Whatcom County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL288 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 46% of Washington public elementary schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- BThree-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Washington public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
20 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.9:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
44%
127 students
DISTRICT 44% · STATE 51%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 9 | 3% |
| Kindergarten | 52 | 18% |
| Grade 1 | 50 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 52 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 52 | 18% |
| Grade 4 | 40 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 33 | 11% |
This year's kindergarten class (52) is 58% larger than its 5th grade class (33).
Student demographics
58%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 55% · STATE 68% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
51.2%
WA avg 58.4% . -8.6pp since 2014
Math
47.9%
WA avg 51.2% . -3.8pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 51 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 48 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58 and 51. Reading and writing scores are down about 9 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 4 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 51.2% | 47.9% |
| 2023-24 | 46.1% | 39.1% |
| 2022-23 | 50.0% | 41.4% |
| 2021-22 | 49.3% | 41.8% |
| 2018-19 | 57.4% | 49.3% |
| 2017-18 | 56.1% | 51.5% |
| 2016-17 | 56.3% | 45.1% |
| 2015-16 | 59.7% | 50.4% |
| 2014-15 | 59.9% | 51.8% |
% Met or Exceeded Standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Smarter Balanced + WCAS. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
49.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
50.6%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-1.0pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 50% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 51% typical for Washington schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Washington's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Sunnyland Elementary School
Sunnyland Elementary School's state test result (49.7% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunnyland Elementary School this school | 288 | 44.1% | 49.7% |
| Mt View Elementary Edgewood | 279 | 42.7% | 55.1% |
| York Elementary School Vancouver | 338 | 43.8% | N/A |
| Kapowsin Elementary Graham | 321 | 47.7% | 43.8% |
| Friday Harbor Elementary School FRIDAY HARBOR | 329 | 43.5% | 51.1% |
| Cottonwood Elementary School SILVERDALE | 362 | 43.1% | 52.5% |
Matched among Washington elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Sunnyland Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Whatcom County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 49.7% | #437 of 936 | #12 of 30 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 47.9% | #481 of 1,103 ▲ 170 | #9 of 30 ▲ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 51.2% | #481 of 1,102 ▲ 96 | #9 of 30 ▲ 4 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.0pp | #315 of 928 | #11 of 30 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 288 | #986 of 1,268 | #28 of 42 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.6:1 | #241 of 1,085 | #8 of 31 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 58.3% | #563 of 1,088 | #11 of 31 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 44.1% | #733 of 1,169 | #27 of 34 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -4.0% | #690 of 778 | #16 of 20 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
288
+23 (+9%) vs 2020
-13% since 1990-91, when it was 330
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
was 13.3:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 288 | 19.8 | 14.6:1 | 44% (127) |
| 2023-24 | 328 | 23 | 14.3:1 | 51% (166) |
| 2022-23 | 316 | 23 | 13.7:1 | 43% (136) |
| 2020-21 | 265 | 20 | 13.3:1 | 37% (99) |
| 2017-18 | 300 | 20.9 | 14.3:1 | 45% (136) |
| 2015-16 | 321 | 21 | 15.3:1 | 52% (166) |
| 2010-11 | 429 | 21 | 20.4:1 | 44% (188) |
| 2000-01 | 307 | 19 | 16.2:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 330 | 18 | 18.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sunnyland Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 4% (300 to 288); teachers down 5% (20.9 to 19.8).
About Sunnyland Elementary School
Sunnyland Elementary School is a small elementary school located in Bellingham, Washington. It teaches 288 students in pre-K through 5. By comparison, elementary schools in Washington enroll about 380 students on average.
A total of 25 schools make up Bellingham School District, with 11,337 students enrolled.
White students are 59% of those enrolled at Sunnyland Elementary School. Beyond that, enrollment is 23% Hispanic, 11% multiracial, and 4% Asian. In Whatcom County overall, about 78% of residents are White. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 58, compared with 70 nationally.
Based on 19.8 full-time-equivalent teachers, Sunnyland Elementary School has a ratio of 14.6:1. The average for elementary schools in Washington, 17.3:1, is higher. Income data for the school show 44% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Public schools in Whatcom County average a similar 47%.
On the allk12 Grade, Sunnyland Elementary School lands at B-, ahead of 46% of Washington public elementary schools.
Sunnyland Elementary School is within a point of its predicted average proficiency rate across its state test results (49.7% versus 50.6%), which places it in neither the top nor the bottom 10% in Washington.
The school is in Whatcom County, where the median household earns about $81,784 a year, about 39% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Across Whatcom County, 78 public schools serve about 27,779 students.
Measured in a straight line, Visions (Seamar Youth Center) is about 0.5 miles from Sunnyland Elementary School. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Its average proficiency rate of 49.7% is above the 48.7% average for nearby schools.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Small.
Enrollment was 288 in 2024-25. In 2020-21, it was 265. The ratio of students to teachers went from 13.3:1 to 14.6:1 over the same years.
Use the discussion section to ask about homework, tutoring, and testing dates at Sunnyland Elementary School. You can also rate the school on this page.
Whatcom County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
230,503
Census ACS
Median income
$81,784
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
78
27,779 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Bellingham School District
- Squalicum High SchoolHigh · 1,273 students
- Bellingham High SchoolHigh · 1,165 students
- Sehome High SchoolHigh · 1,116 students
- Whatcom Middle SchoolMiddle · 637 students
- Shuksan Middle SchoolMiddle · 606 students
- Fairhaven Middle SchoolMiddle · 588 students
Other schools in Bellingham
- Squalicum High SchoolHigh · 1,273 students
- Bellingham High SchoolHigh · 1,165 students
- Sehome High SchoolHigh · 1,116 students
- Whatcom Middle SchoolMiddle · 637 students
- Shuksan Middle SchoolMiddle · 606 students
- Fairhaven Middle SchoolMiddle · 588 students
Nearby schools
- Visions (Seamar Youth Center)0.5 mi · 11
- Parkview Elementary School0.7 mi · 422
- Options High School0.8 mi · 176
- Bellingham Re-Engagement Program0.8 mi · 110
- Bellingham High School0.8 mi · 1,165
- Whatcom Middle School0.9 mi · 637
Frequently asked questions
About Sunnyland Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Sunnyland Elementary School?
Sunnyland Elementary School enrolls approximately 288 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Sunnyland Elementary School serve?
Sunnyland Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Sunnyland Elementary School?
Approximately 14.6:1 students per teacher at Sunnyland Elementary School.
How diverse is Sunnyland Elementary School?
Sunnyland Elementary School reports a student body of 59% White, 23% Hispanic, 2% Black, 4% Asian, 11% Two or more.
Who oversees Sunnyland Elementary School?
Sunnyland Elementary School is overseen by Bellingham School District in Whatcom County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.