Forest Home Elementary

Forest Home Elementary, a large elementary campus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, overseen by Milwaukee School District, works with 559 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 73% larger than the typical public school in Wisconsin, which averages around 323 students.

Milwaukee School District runs 155 schools in total, collectively educating 65,835 students. Forest Home Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Forest Home Elementary logs that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (83%). Beyond that, the school shows 11% Black, 2% White. By comparison, Milwaukee County as a whole is about 17% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Forest Home Elementary shows 50 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.3:1. The state averages around 14.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 92% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is higher than Milwaukee County's rate of about 64%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Forest Home Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 21.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 17.0%.

In the area at large, the surrounding county (Milwaukee County) shows that median household income runs about $64,435, 35% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 13%. Across Milwaukee County's 284 public schools (combined enrollment of about 122,496 students), Forest Home Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is South Accelerated Academy, roughly 0.2 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Forest Home Elementary at 5th of 8; the average score across the group is 16.9%.

The school occupies an inner-city site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Forest Home Elementary has contracted 18%, going from 680 students in 2018 to 559 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 73% to 83% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 17.9:1 in 2018 to 11.3:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Forest Home Elementary community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.