Steele Lane Elementary, Santa Rosa CA

Original Research by School Decision on Steele Lane Elementary

Steele Lane Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in a residential area of Santa Rosa, California. The school enrolls a small to mid-sized population, with a student body that is predominantly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged; about seven in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school is located in the Santa Rosa Elementary School District, a district that has faced serious financial pressures and made major structural changes to its school portfolio in recent years.

Academic performance at Steele Lane is deeply concerning across all tested subjects and grades. State testing results from the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress show proficiency rates in the single digits to low teens across mathematics and English language arts in grades three through six. In mathematics, proficiency in sixth grade stands at only a handful of students, while fifth and fourth grades fare somewhat better but still well below typical benchmarks. English language arts results mirror this pattern, with all grade levels showing single-digit to low-teen proficiency rates. Science proficiency in fifth grade, the only science grade tested, is similarly low. Overall proficiency across tested subjects sits in the bottom tier of elementary schools in Sonoma County, placing Steele Lane well below the median performance among county district schools.

The context surrounding the school has changed dramatically. The Santa Rosa Elementary School District announced in early 2025 that Steele Lane Elementary will close at the end of the current school year, shifting all students to other district campuses. This closure is part of a broader consolidation effort driven by declining enrollment and fiscal stress; the district also closed Albert Biella and Brook Hill Elementary in 2025 and has undertaken major restructuring of grade configurations across remaining schools. The influx of students into receiving schools has created crowding and staffing strain, with class sizes rising significantly and more than fifty teaching, counseling, and support positions eliminated district-wide since 2024. Elementary class sizes after kindergarten are now projected to reach around thirty-two students per classroom.

The district voters approved a substantial bond measure in 2022 to upgrade aging facilities, and families choosing this district should know that property taxes will carry that obligation for decades. Additionally, district leadership has considered or explored imposing a parcel tax to address an ongoing budget deficit, which could result in additional property-tax assessments on households within the district.

Santa Rosa itself is a county seat and mixed-character city with a downtown core that has seen renewed emphasis on residential life and walkability in the central district, though much of the city remains car-dependent. Major employers center on health care and government, and the area sits within an interconnected eastern park system anchored by Howarth Park and Spring Lake Regional Park. Growth policy directs new housing toward downtown infill and missing-middle residential zones near transit rather than outward sprawl, shaped by the county's urban growth boundaries. Housing values in the area are substantially above national benchmarks.

Families considering Steele Lane should understand that the school faces an imminent closure and that any enrollment decision would mean a transition to another campus within the district as soon as the following school year. The school's academic results are low across all grade levels and subjects, and the broader district context includes recent and ongoing staff reductions and classroom-size increases that have affected the learning environment across elementary campuses.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 33% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 26% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 21% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 67%

School 7% · District 28% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 30% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 29% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 33% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 67%

School 7% · District 40% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 42 pts below county median

Science

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 24% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

This schoolSanta Rosa Elementary, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.