Original Research by School Decision on Edison
Edison is a special education school in Ferndale, Michigan, operated by the Hazel Park School District of the City of. It serves students from kindergarten through twelfth grade on a single campus on Mapledale Street. The enrollment is very small, which is consistent with its design as a specialized setting rather than a neighborhood comprehensive school. Families considering Edison are typically looking at it because their child has needs that a general education classroom does not fully address, and the school's identity follows from that purpose.
Because Edison is a special education school, most standard state assessment results are either suppressed or reflect very small tested groups. In the most recent year of available data, nearly every grade level had zero students sitting for the state M-STEP or PSAT, so proficiency rates could not be calculated. The one exception was eighth grade, where a small group of students was tested in math, English language arts, science, and social studies. No students in that group scored proficient in any of those subjects. This is the kind of result that often reflects the nature of a special education population rather than a straightforward measure of school quality, but the numbers are what they are. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking how student growth is tracked and what individualized progress measures the staff uses day to day, since state testing captures only a narrow slice of what a place like this does.
The school does not have a reported graduation rate, chronic absenteeism figure, or proficiency index that could be compared against other districts in Oakland County. The comparison fact-set, which positions this school relative to districts in Oakland County, marks all three metrics as not applicable because the underlying entity values are missing. This is another gap that often reflects the special-purpose nature of the school rather than a failure to report. No discipline, course access, staffing, or attendance data was available either, so those dimensions of school life cannot be described here.
The student body is small and diverse. The majority of students are white, with a substantial share who are Black, and a smaller number of Hispanic, multirace, and American Indian or Alaska Native students. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. No individualized education program rate, English learner rate, or other special population figures were reported, which is notable given that this is itself a special education school. The school is not a charter and is not designated as a magnet. Title I status was not reported.
Ferndale itself is an inner-ring suburb of Detroit, sitting roughly ten miles northwest of downtown along the Woodward Avenue corridor. It began as a bedroom community for Detroit workers and has evolved into a city with a revitalized downtown centered on Nine Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. Publicly reported sources describe Ferndale as a hub of the LGBTQ+ community in Metro Detroit and a center of progressive politics. The downtown was reconfigured some years ago to be more pedestrian-friendly, with narrowed traffic lanes, added on-street parking, and bicycle infrastructure, which brought new storefronts and foot traffic. Civic anchors include an LGBT community center, city parks, active churches, a downtown development authority, and a library the city describes as award-winning. Housing in the immediate area is more affordable than the state and national benchmarks, with home values below the state median and rents sitting at a level that keeps rent-to-income ratios moderate for the region. The county-level market has been seeing more active and new listings compared with a year ago, with median listing prices easing slightly and homes moving in about a month on average.
A portion of Ferndale is zoned to Hazel Park Schools, which is the district Edison belongs to. The district brief turned up little of lasting impact in recent years, so there is nothing to relay on that front. Edison occupies a specific niche within that district. For a family whose child has significant specialized needs, the relevant questions are about staffing, therapeutic services, individualized programming, and transition planning. The data available here cannot answer those questions, so a direct conversation with the school would be the next practical step.
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