Original Research by School Decision on Froid Elementary School
Froid Elementary School serves grades pre-kindergarten through six in the small agricultural town of Froid, in northeastern Montana’s Roosevelt County. It is a very small school by any measure, with a total enrollment of about three dozen children. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of economic need that is common in rural communities across the Hi-Line. The student body is predominantly white, with a notable share of students who are American Indian or Alaska Native, and smaller shares who are Hispanic or of two or more races.
Because the school’s tested population is so small, the state of Montana suppresses all state assessment results for math, English language arts, and science to protect student privacy. That means no proficiency rates, scale scores, or comparison data are publicly available for the 2023–24 school year. The school did participate in the Smarter Balanced assessments and the Montana Science Assessment, but with fewer than a handful of test-takers in some subjects, the data cannot be released. A family who wants to understand how students are performing academically would need to speak with the school directly.
There is no high school grade band at this site, so there is no graduation rate to consider. The school also lacks publicly reported information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, or course access. The district — Froid Elem, which oversees this school — did not have any recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, referenda, or property-tax adjustments appear in publicly available searches.
Froid sits along US-2 in a region defined by wheat, sunflowers, beef cattle, and barley farming. The town covers less than a square mile and has experienced long-term population decline, with no major new housing or commercial development. The school and the Roosevelt County Library branch are within the same compact grid, and the K–12 campus is integrated into the town fabric. The wider setting is wide-open prairie, with Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the Missouri River offering nearby outdoor recreation.
For a family, this is a deeply rural, small-scale elementary setting where the close-knit nature of the community is likely the defining characteristic. The peer group is very small, which can mean strong personal relationships but also limited social variety. The absence of published academic data makes it hard to gauge comparative performance, so a direct visit and conversation with the principal or teachers would be essential. The high share of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch suggests the school may have access to federal meal programs and related support, but no Title I designation was reported in the available records. The school’s website or a call to the district office would clarify the supports available. Families who value an intimate, community-rooted experience in a quiet agricultural town may find Froid Elementary a natural fit; those seeking detailed academic metrics or a broader range of programs will want to dig deeper on their own.
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