Original Research by School Decision on Special Education Nonpublic
Special Education Nonpublic serves a very small number of students in prekindergarten through eighth grade in Saint Anthony Village, a compact first-ring suburb northeast of Minneapolis. It is classified as a special education school, which means it is designed for students with identified disabilities who require a setting outside their home district’s typical schools. The enrollment is tiny, and for the year reported, the single student was in second grade and identified as two or more races. Data on economic disadvantage, English learner status, and special education classification rates were not available; that is common for a school this size, where privacy thresholds often suppress such counts.
This is not a school that families choose through a general enrollment process. Admission is driven by a student’s individualized education program and the determination that a specialized, separate setting is necessary to meet their needs. Because the school serves only prekindergarten through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to examine, and state testing data was not available, which is typical for a special education school where students are assessed according to their IEPs rather than through standard grade-level tests. For the same reasons, the school does not appear in the county-level comparison metrics for proficiency, graduation, or chronic absenteeism.
The academic program, course offerings, and staffing data were all absent from the record, so it is not possible to describe the curriculum or teacher qualifications from the information provided. A parent considering this placement would need to work directly with the school and their child’s IEP team to understand the instructional approach, therapy supports, class size, and daily structure. There is no public data on discipline or attendance either, again likely due to the very small enrollment.
Saint Anthony Village itself is a small, densely built suburb with a mix of older homes and redeveloped commercial sites. The community is compact, with schools and civic buildings clustered near Central Park rather than spread across separate campuses. Housing values and rents in the area are comparable to state and national averages, and the economic context reflects a stable job market. The district that oversees this school, St. Anthony-New Brighton Schools, is the same system that runs the neighborhood elementary, middle, and high schools in town, but Special Education Nonpublic is a distinct facility for a specific population.
This school fits a narrow role in the local educational landscape. It exists to serve students whose disabilities require a specialized, nonpublic placement, and it is not a school one evaluates by typical metrics like test scores or graduation rates. For any family whose child is not already being directed here through a special education process, it is not an accessible option. For families whose child’s team has recommended this setting, the missing data means the next step is a direct conversation with the school about what a day looks like, what related services are provided, and how academic and behavioral goals are tracked.
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