Original Research by School Decision on Special Ed School
Special Ed School is a special education school in the Auburn School District, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Because of its designation as a special education school, it is unlike a typical neighborhood school. Its entire purpose is to support students with individualized education programs, and it draws a small number of students from across the district.
The student body is small and diverse. The school's enrollment is very small for a school serving this wide a grade band, with students spread very thinly across every year from pre-K through senior year. Racially and ethnically, the group reflects the broader Auburn community, with white students making up the largest share, followed by Hispanic students, and then smaller groups of Black, Asian, multiracial, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Just over a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which is a lower share than what is typical for the district, though that measure carries different meaning in a specialized setting.
State testing data is suppressed for this school. Because the student population is very small, Washington state suppresses proficiency results and participation rates to protect student privacy. This is a standard practice for schools with very low test-taker counts, and it means that no state-level academic performance picture is available through the usual metrics. There is no graduation rate reported for the same reason: the school's graduating cohort is too small to report publicly without identification concerns.
The absence of these metrics should not be read as a statement about academic quality. For a parent considering this placement, the relevant measure is not a schoolwide test score, but rather how the school's specialized programming, staffing, and therapeutic supports match a specific student's needs. Families should expect to gather that information directly from the school and their child's individualized education program team.
The school is operated by the Auburn School District, which is itself in the middle of a five-year strategic plan covering 2022 through 2027. The district is also undertaking major capital construction, with significant spending on facilities that will reshape school buildings and potentially attendance boundaries. For families of students placed at Special Ed School, those district-level investments may influence the facilities and resources the school has access to in the coming years.
Auburn is a mid-sized suburb in the Seattle area, with a mix of residential neighborhoods, industrial employment centers like the massive Boeing plant, and a historic downtown. The city has grown through annexation and has seen the development of large planned communities like Lakeland Hills, which includes its own neighborhood school. The Muckleshoot Indian Reservation lies to the south and southeast, and Green River College sits on the east side of the city. Housing values in Auburn's zip code are high, though below the King County median, and the rental market is also expensive.
For a family whose child requires a specialized educational setting, Special Ed School is a small, dedicated program within a larger district that is actively planning and building for the future. The school does not produce the kind of public-facing academic data that typical schools do, which is a natural consequence of its size and mission. A parent should expect to evaluate the school entirely through direct conversations with its staff and through the lens of their child's individual plan.
See more original research from School Decision →