Original Research by School Decision on Federal Way Running Start Home School
Federal Way Running Start Home School is an unusual public school. It serves only juniors and seniors, and its enrollment is tiny. A school of this size and structure does not produce the standard academic performance data that most parents use to evaluate a school. There are no state test results, no graduation rate, and no chronic absenteeism rate available. Those gaps are not a sign of weak performance. The school operates in a grade band and under a model that simply does not generate those metrics in the usual way. A parent considering this option should understand that the conventional measures used to compare high schools do not apply here, and they will need to learn about the program directly from the school to assess its quality.
The school's name points to its identity. Running Start is a Washington state program that allows high school juniors and seniors to enroll full-time or part-time in college courses at participating community colleges and technical schools, earning both high school and college credit simultaneously. The "Home School" in the name suggests this is a program for students who are otherwise educated at home and are using Running Start as their pathway to college coursework. The school itself does not hold classes in a traditional building. It is a thin administrative structure through which families coordinate a student's dual enrollment at a partner college. The three students enrolled, two eleventh graders and one twelfth grader, reflect a very small participant group drawn from the broader Federal Way school district home-school community.
The student body is racially diverse. One student is Asian, one is Hispanic, and one is white. Information on economic disadvantage is not reported. Special education and English learner status are also not present in the data. The school's type is listed as a regular public school, but its delivery model is anything but regular. Parents who want a conventional classroom experience with a fixed daily schedule, a school building, extracurriculars, and a full slate of courses taught by the school's own faculty will not find that here. This option is for a specific kind of family: one that has already chosen home-based education and sees Running Start as a way to transition their student into college coursework before high school graduation.
Federal Way is a mid-sized city south of Seattle and north of Tacoma, shaped by the Interstate 5 corridor and the suburban development that followed. The city is primarily car-oriented, with strip malls and apartment complexes lining the major arterials. A new Link light rail station opened in the city center in late 2025, connecting Federal Way to the regional network for the first time. The housing market in the surrounding area is expensive. Home values are well above the national benchmark, and rents are high relative to national income. The school district itself did not show any recent major changes in the information we could locate, so a parent should plan to contact Federal Way Public Schools directly to learn the current status of the Running Start home-school program and how it is administered.
A family should ask specific questions. Which colleges does the district work with for Running Start placement? How does the district handle the coordination of high school credit and college credit? What support, if any, does the district provide to the home-school family in selecting courses or navigating the college enrollment process? What are the eligibility requirements, and is there a cost to the family for tuition, books, or transportation? The answers to those questions will define whether this program is a good fit. The numbers in the data file cannot answer them. This is a case where the conventional school profile tells a parent very little, and the real research must happen outside the data.
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