Original Research by School Decision on Purdue Polytechnic High School South Bend
Purdue Polytechnic High School South Bend operates as a single-school public charter district serving ninth through twelfth grade. Its enrollment is small, with roughly a hundred and fifty students across four grade levels. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse: it includes a large share of white students, a substantial Hispanic population, a smaller but present Black student group, and a modest number of Asian and two-or-more-races students. No data was provided on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, receive special education services, or are English learners, so a parent would need to ask the school directly for those figures.
The school’s academic performance record is essentially absent from the available information. The data contains no state assessment results across any tested subjects or grades. Because the school serves high school grades, which are typically tested in Indiana, this gap likely reflects that either the school did not participate in state testing or results were not reported to the dataset. There is also no graduation rate on file. A parent looking for standard measures of academic achievement or completion will find nothing to evaluate here and should pursue those numbers from the school or the state.
What is measurable from the provided information sends a decidedly mixed signal. The school’s chronic absenteeism rate—the share of students missing a substantial number of school days—places it in the bottom quartile among St. Joseph County’s districts. That is a high rate relative to its peers, and a parent may want to understand what is driving it, particularly for a small school where individual attendance patterns can have a large effect on the learning environment. The school’s per-pupil current spending falls in the lower range compared with other districts in the county, meaning it operates on a leaner budget. That could reflect its charter status and smaller scale, but it also means fewer resources per student for staffing, materials, and supports.
The most consequential fact about Purdue Polytechnic High School South Bend is not a metric but a decision. Publicly reported sources confirm that the school will close at the end of the 2025–2026 school year. The board of directors cited declining enrollment and financial challenges in reaching this decision. For a family considering this school for the coming year, that means any student enrolling now would need to find a new school the following year. Displaced students have been offered priority enrollment at schools operated by the Career Academy Network of Public Schools, but that is a transition that requires planning.
The school itself sits in South Bend, St. Joseph County. No locale brief was provided, so there is no description of the immediate neighborhood or housing market to ground the setting. The school operates as a charter with a single campus, and its website is listed as pphs.purdue.edu.
For a family weighing this option, the picture is clear in structure but thin on academic evidence. The school is a small, diverse high school with high absenteeism, low per-pupil spending, and a confirmed closure date. A parent whose priority is a small learning environment or a charter alternative might be drawn to it, but they will need to investigate the academic program and daily conditions on their own, because the data provided does not show test scores, graduation outcomes, or course access. And the timeline of the closure means this can only be a short-term choice.
See more original research from School Decision →