NCES CCD 2024-25 7 schools KS

Best-Resourced Schools in Hays, KS

Compiled from official source data by .

7 public K-12 schools in Hays from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
7
Schools
3,434
Students
42.7/100
Avg Resource Index
18.3:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Compact, single-district system

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Hays has more public-school enrollment than 35% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Hays's 7 listed schools all sit inside one district, creating a compact governance structure with one budget, board, and reporting chain. That makes citywide comparisons cleaner than in places split across several districts, but it does not make the campuses interchangeable: elementary, middle, and high-school staffing needs differ. The ranked list is best read as variation inside one system rather than competition among separate local authorities.

A full K–12 ladder sits inside the city boundary

Hays's list includes 3 elementary, 1 middle, and 1 high-school campus, plus 2 combined-grade records. The city average spans every major grade stage, so the ranked table is more informative when read within level than as one interchangeable queue.

The composite and staffing measures point in different directions

Hays's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 59th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 24th percentile. The 35-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.

City enrollment
Top 65%
School count
Top 65%
Resource Index average
59th percentile
Teacher staffing
24th percentile

Hays High accounts for 29.6% of all Hays public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Hays-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Hays school enrollment varies 3.9× across entities

Hays school enrollment ranges from 262 students (lowest) to 1,017 students (highest), a spread of 755 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Hays operates one school district — a single-district system

Hays's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Hays student-teacher ratio is 18.3:1 — high (typically associated with larger urban scale or staffing constraints that have widened the headcount gap)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Lincoln Elem 51
2. Kathryn O'loughlin Mccarthy Elem 49
3. Woodrow Wilson Elem 49
4. Roosevelt Elem 46
5. Hays Middle School 41
6. Hays High 33
7. Hays Virtual School 30

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Hays

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Lincoln Elem 46.4/100
  2. 2 Kathryn O'loughlin Mccarthy Elem 37.9/100
  3. 3 Hays High 34.6/100
  4. 4 Hays Middle School 33.1/100
  5. 5 Roosevelt Elem 32.3/100

What do families ask about schools in Hays?

Which Hays school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Lincoln Elem has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Hays schools in this federal-data comparison at 51/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Hays, KS? ▼

Hays has 7 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,434 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 18.3:1.

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Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.