Original Research by School Decision on Livingston High School
Livingston High School is a regular public high school serving ninth through twelfth grades in the suburban township of Livingston, Essex County. The school's enrollment is large for a single-campus high school. The student body is predominantly White, with a substantial Asian share as the next-largest group; smaller populations of Hispanic, Black, multiracial, and other backgrounds make up the remainder. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is very low, consistent with the affluent residential community the school draws from. Data on the proportion of students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available in the information provided.
State assessment results and the four-year graduation rate are not present in the data reviewed. Without those measures, a direct academic performance picture cannot be drawn here. A parent or resident looking for the school’s track record on proficiency and graduation would need to consult the school or district directly for that information. The available comparison framework, which positions schools and districts relative to others in Essex County, could not generate proficiency, graduation, or chronic absenteeism comparisons because those figures were missing for this entity.
Livingston itself is a predominantly residential, high-income suburb located roughly an hour from New York City by car. The township's housing market is very expensive, with home values and rents well above national benchmarks. The built environment is car-dependent, with single-family homes on sizable lots, limited walkability, and commercial corridors rather than a traditional downtown grid. The population is notably diverse, with a significant Asian community and, as reported elsewhere, a large Jewish population. The township’s economy is anchored by Saint Barnabas Medical Center, retail in the Livingston Mall area, and a substantial commuting workforce that travels to jobs outside the community.
The Livingston Board of Education School District, which operates this high school, has two recent developments relevant to families. In November 2024, voters approved a referendum to fund additional classrooms at multiple elementary schools to expand full-day kindergarten for all students, with construction expected to be complete by September 2026. The district also adopted a budget for the 2025-26 school year that includes a tax levy increase; the impact on the average assessed home is a modest annual increase. These changes are district-wide and affect elementary schooling and property taxes, but they signal ongoing investment and planning.
The school itself is part of a campus-based system; the high school, like Livingston’s elementary and middle schools, sits on its own site in a residential neighborhood, separate from the Township Center municipal complex. No information was available on specific course offerings, advanced placement or dual-credit programs, career pathways, or extracurricular breadth in the provided data. Staffing ratios, discipline rates, and attendance figures also were not reported.
For a family considering this school, the essential context is that it serves a large, affluent suburb with very high housing costs and a predominantly White and Asian student body. The absence of published test scores and graduation rate data means that a central piece of academic information is missing from this account. A parent would want to follow up with the school or district to obtain that information directly, along with details about program offerings and student outcomes. What is clear is the community’s high socioeconomic profile and the district’s recent investments in early education, both of which frame the environment in which the high school operates.
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