Original Research by School Decision on 917 Paces
917 PACES is a special education school in Rosemount that serves students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is one of the programs operated by Intermediate School District 917, a cooperative intermediate district that provides specialized services to nine member school districts throughout the area. The school's designation as a special education school means its sole purpose is to serve students with disabilities, and the entire educational program is built around that mission. This is not a neighborhood public school that families choose based on zone; it is a placement school, meaning students are assigned here through their home district's special education process when their needs require a more specialized setting than their local school can provide.
The enrollment is very small, which is typical for a program of this kind. The student body across all grade levels is relatively evenly distributed, with students in every grade from three through twelve and none in kindergarten through second grade. Racially, the student population is predominantly white, with sizable shares of Asian students, students of two or more races, and Black students, and a small share of Hispanic students. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of economic need. Data on how many students have individualized education programs or are English learners was not available in the profile.
Standardized state testing data from the most recent year was suppressed for every subject and grade level, which is a typical privacy-related reporting practice when the number of students tested in a given group is very small. The school's type and size make it effectively impossible to draw meaningful conclusions about academic performance from state assessment results. A graduation rate was not reported, which the school's structure likely explains: as a special education placement program, students may graduate through their home district rather than this school, and the metric simply does not apply in the same way it would for a comprehensive high school.
The surrounding community of Rosemount sits about fifteen miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, with the northeastern part of the city dominated by heavy industry including an oil refinery that is the area's largest private employer. The western part of Rosemount is a rapidly growing residential area with new single-family homes, townhomes, and condominiums, anchored by an older commercial downtown that developed around a historic railroad line and grain elevator. The city is growing quickly, with hundreds of new homes under construction and substantial acreage reserved for further industrial and commercial development. Housing in the Rosemount zip code area typically costs more than the statewide average and considerably more than the national average. Rents also run above both state and national benchmarks, which matters for any family relocating to access this school or the district's services.
Intermediate School District 917 operates as a regional cooperative, meaning it does not run its own neighborhood schools or collect local property taxes directly from residents in the way a traditional school district does. Its purpose is to pool resources across multiple member districts to provide specialized programming that would be difficult for any single district to offer on its own. The search for recent parent-relevant changes to the district's operations did not surface specific information about changes in policy, programming, or leadership from the last few years, so that dimension is not possible to characterize here.
For a family reading this, the central reality is that 917 PACES is a designated special education school. Any conversation about whether it is a good fit must begin with the student's individual needs and the specific IEP or placement recommendation from their home district. The state testing results are not available to evaluate, and the small size means the school functions more as a specialized therapeutic or academic setting than as a comprehensive school in the conventional sense. The housing market in Rosemount is strong and growing, with home values and rents notably above typical Minnesota levels, which is a practical consideration for any family relocating to the area. A parent considering this placement would want to speak directly with the school and their home district's special education team about the specific programs, staffing ratios, and therapeutic supports offered here.
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