The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Math. The lowest is 27% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Kaplan Elementary School
Kaplan Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade in the town of Kaplan, a small rural city in Vermilion Parish. It is a regular public school within the Vermilion Parish district and the only public elementary school in the community, drawing children from the town and surrounding areas into a single pre-K-to-4 building.
The town itself is compact and deeply rooted in Cajun heritage. Its traditional Main Street is lined with local storefronts and a museum dedicated to the area’s Mardi Gras traditions. Kaplan sits at the intersection of two state highways, giving it a crossroads feel, and its residents have long ties to the nearby coastal wetlands, with hunting, fishing, and shrimping forming a significant part of local life. The population has been declining for several decades, a pattern that holds steady in the latest estimates, and the housing market reflects that modest scale—homes in the area are priced well below national and state averages. No major new residential or commercial developments have surfaced in public accounts, and the economy relies on small businesses, agriculture, and outdoor recreation rather than large employers.
The student body at Kaplan Elementary is predominantly white, with a Black student population of roughly one in six. Hispanic students and students of two or more races each make up smaller but noticeable shares. A substantial majority of students come from families with low enough incomes to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that places the school in a high-need profile compared to many schools nationally. The school serves a single grade band, so students transition to a middle school after fourth grade; there are no high school grades on this campus, which means there is no graduation rate to report.
On state assessments administered through Louisiana’s LEAP 2025 program, the school’s results come from third and fourth graders tested in math, English language arts, science, and social studies. Participation was complete, with all enrolled students taking the tests. In math, about half of students scored at the proficient level or above, and a similar share reached that bar in English language arts. Science and social studies both showed lower proficiency rates, with roughly one in four students meeting the same standard. Because only a single year of data was available for each subject, there is no trend line to compare, and the state made a change to the social studies cut scores in that same year, so that subject’s results should be interpreted with some caution. A parent considering the school may want to ask the school directly about how it supports learning in science and social studies at the primary level, especially given that those scores trail the literacy and math results.
No comparison to other schools within Vermilion Parish could be made here because the available data set included too few schools to draw a position. Similarly, discipline data, chronic absenteeism, and student-teacher ratios were not reported in the sources reviewed. The school’s status as a regular public school and its non-charter, non-magnet identity are clear, but many operational details that families often ask about are simply absent from the public record.
For a family reading this narrative, Kaplan Elementary presents as a neighborhood school in a small, slow-changing community where housing is affordable and the town’s identity is woven into the daily life of its residents. The academic picture shows solid foundations in reading and math for the early grades, with room for growth in the content areas. The school’s high level of economic need suggests that its staff may be balancing extra support services alongside instruction. Families invested in the local Cajun culture and outdoor lifestyle will find Kaplan a familiar fit; those looking for a growing suburb with extensive program offerings will need to look elsewhere.
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