Darlington Elementary/Middle

Darlington Elementary/Middle is one of the sprawling K-5 schools in Darlington, Wisconsin, overseen by Darlington Community School District, with 636 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 8. That puts it 97% above the typical public school in Wisconsin, which averages around 323 students.

Darlington Community School District runs 2 schools in total, collectively educating 899 students. Darlington Elementary/Middle is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Darlington Elementary/Middle shows that White students make up the majority at 64%. The remainder reads as 35% Hispanic. By comparison, Lafayette County as a whole is about 91% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 45 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.1:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. Around 48% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

After controlling for student poverty, Darlington Elementary/Middle performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 47.9%, the actual is 55.1%, a residual of +7.2 points.

In the area at large, Lafayette County reports that the typical household earns roughly $76,462 per year, 23% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. In all, Lafayette County runs 17 public schools (combined enrollment of about 2,658 students), of which Darlington Elementary/Middle is one.

The closest other public school is Darlington High, roughly 0.1 miles away. 4 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. On composite proficiency, Darlington Elementary/Middle comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 51.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a low-density area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Darlington Elementary/Middle has ticked up 4%, going from 611 students in 2018 to 636 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment edged up from 24% to 35% over that span.

Inside the community feed, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.