Original Research by School Decision on Contracted Schools
Contracted Schools is a special education school serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in Lynnwood, Washington. It operates within the Edmonds School District, and its purpose sets it apart from the neighborhood elementary or comprehensive high school a family would typically shop for. The school enrolls a very small number of students, which is consistent with a specialized program that serves students whose needs are met through contracted placements rather than a standard attendance boundary.
The student body is diverse in terms of race and ethnicity, with white students forming the largest group and smaller shares of Hispanic, Black, and Asian students represented. About half of the students come from households that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of economic need. The school does not report data on students with individualized education programs or English learners separately, likely because the entire school by its nature serves students with disabilities and that designation is embedded in its classification as a special education school.
State testing results for math, English language arts, and science are all suppressed for every grade level. This is not unusual for a school of this size and type. When a school enrolls very few students in tested grades, state agencies suppress results to protect student privacy, and the numbers are too small to produce reliable or comparable proficiency rates. The same applies to participation rates and counts of tested students. A parent looking for typical achievement data will find none here, and that absence is by design given the school's mission.
No graduation rate is available, which again reflects the nature of the school. The school's grade span goes to twelfth grade, but the enrollment data shows no students in the upper high school grades, suggesting that students may transition to other settings as they approach graduation age or that the school's programming does not capture a standard four-year cohort.
Contracted Schools is located in Lynnwood, a suburban city in Snohomish County about sixteen miles north of Seattle. Lynnwood is known for its retail concentration, anchored by a large mall, and it functions as both a bedroom community and a regional commercial hub. A light rail extension is planned to bring transit-oriented development, and the city hosts Edmonds College and a convention center. The housing market in the area is high, with home values above the national median and rents that are also elevated, reflecting the broader Seattle metro area's costs.
The Edmonds School District, which administers Contracted Schools, recently passed a construction bond to rebuild two older schools and fund improvements across the district. The district is also adopting a new K-3 literacy curriculum grounded in the science of reading, a shift that will affect early elementary classrooms districtwide by fall of an upcoming school year. These districtwide changes do not directly shape the experience at Contracted Schools, but they indicate the district's broader priorities and financial commitments.
For a family considering this school, the key takeaway is that it is not a mainstream school and should not be evaluated by the same metrics. It serves students who require specialized support that the district provides through contracted arrangements. The absence of test scores and graduation data is a consequence of the school's small size and special education focus, not a sign of poor performance. A parent would want to speak directly with the school or the district's special education department to understand the specific programs, therapeutic supports, and transition pathways offered, because those details are not captured in the publicly available data. The school's location in Lynnwood places it in a suburban setting with access to transit, retail, and community college resources, but the school itself is a small, targeted program rather than a place where a family would send a typically developing child from the neighborhood.
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