Compiled from official source data by PlainSchools.
5 public K-12 schools in Pawleys Island from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Pawleys Island has more public-school enrollment than 18% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Pawleys Island's 5 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
Pawleys Island's list includes 2 elementary, 1 middle, and 1 high-school campus, plus 1 combined-grade record. The city average spans every major grade stage, so the ranked table is more informative when read within level than as one interchangeable queue.
One district, but meaningful resource variation
Pawleys Island's schools share one district authority while their average Resource Investment Index ranks at the 75th percentile among listed cities. Shared governance removes one source of policy variation, but it does not erase campus differences by grade span or enrollment. The 6-point gap between Waccamaw High and Waccamaw Intermediate measures the remaining local spread. Use the district-level picture for common budget context, then compare the school components to see whether staffing, counseling, gifted-program reporting, or attendance accounts for each campus's position.
City enrollment
Top 82%
School count
Top 99%
Resource Index average
75th percentile
Teacher staffing
52nd percentile
Waccamaw High accounts for 34.6% of all Pawleys Island public-school enrollment
That dominant concentration means Pawleys Island-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.
Pawleys Island school enrollment varies 3.3× across entities
Pawleys Island school enrollment ranges from 242 students (lowest) to 808 students (highest), a spread of 566 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.
Pawleys Island reports 52.8% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Pawleys Island operates one school district — a single-district system
Pawleys Island'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.
Pawleys Island student-teacher ratio is 15.2:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure
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 Variation between sub-units within Pawleys Island is typically wider than the Pawleys Island-aggregate figure suggests.
1 of Pawleys Island's 5 listed schools are charters
20% of the city's listed public-school campuses are reported as charter schools in NCES CCD. Charter status identifies a different governance arrangement; it does not establish admissions availability, academic quality, or the share of city students enrolled in those campuses. Open each school record to compare enrollment and staffing directly.
Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Pawleys Island
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.
What do families ask about schools in Pawleys Island?
Which Pawleys Island school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼
Waccamaw High has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Pawleys Island schools in this federal-data comparison at 50/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
How many schools are in Pawleys Island, SC? ▼
Pawleys Island has 5 public schools with a total enrollment of 2,337 students. 1 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 15.2:1.
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.
