K-12 Education

Pottawatomie County’s K-12 education is comprised of eight Unified School Districts. Below is a map showing the territories of each USD.

Educational Attainment in Pottawatomie County, Population 25 years and over (2018 Estimate)

Seven out of eight School Districts in Pottawatomie County have a higher graduation rate than the State of Kansas’s average graduation rate of 87.3%.

Graduation Rate (4-Year Cohort) and Dropout Rate by School District in Pottawatomie County 2018-19

School District	USD	Graduation Rate	Dropout Rate
Wamego	320	89.1%	0.7%
Kaw Valley	321	92.3%	0.4%
Onaga-Havensville-Wheaton	322	90.0%	1.7%
Rock Creek	323	94.4%	0.2% (2017-18)
Riley	378	94.4%	0.9%
Vermillion	380	100.0%	0.0% (2015-16)
Manhattan-Ogden	383	82.3%	2.3%
Blue Valley	384	92.3%	1.2%

Source: Kansas State Department of Education, https://datacentral.ksde.org/report_gen.aspx (Retrieved June 2020).

The pupil-teacher ratio is the number of students who attend a school divided by the number of teachers in the institution. Numerous sources argue that lower pupil-teacher ratios are better at teaching students complex subjects, such as physics, mathematics, and chemistry, than those with a higher ratio of students to teachers. Compared to the national average of approximately 16.1 and the state of Kansas pupil-teacher ratio of 15.5, Pottawatomie County reached a good ratio of 13.6 in 2017-18.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio in Pottawatomie County

School Year	FTE Enrollment September 20	Total FTE PK-12 Teachers	Pupil-Teacher Ratio
2014-15	3,824.6	290	13.2
2015-16	3,816.2	295	12.9
2016-17	3,953.2	294	13.1
2017-18	3,989.9	293.3	13.6

^{Source: Kansas Statistical Abstract 2017 (Kansas State Department of Education, Selected Statistics by District)}

School Tax Rates, by County and School District, 2017-18

School District	USD	FTE Enrollment	Total Assessed Valuation per Pupil	Total Assessed Valuation	Total School Mill Level
Wamego	320	1,523.3	62,448	95,127,057	52.85
Kaw Valley	321	1,087.0	302,039	328,316,108	36.84
Onaga-Havensville- Wheaton	322	304.0	87,055	26,464,82	45.39
Rock Creek	323	1,079.9	56,951	61,501,310	60.08

Source: Kansas Statistical Abstract 2018 (KS Department of Education, Reports and Publications, Assessed Valuation Reports and Mill Levy Reports)

High School Graduate Destinations by School District 2017-2018 (by number of students)

	4 Year College	2 Year College	Tech. College	Employment	Military
Wamego	41	32	17	12	<10*
Kaw Valley	40	16	20	10	<10
Onaga-Havensville- Wheaton	11	<10	<10	<10	N/A
Rock Creek	35	20	<10	<10	N/A
Riley	19	15	N/A	N/A	<10
Manhattan-Ogden	255	108	34	104	20
Vermillion	19	<10	<10	<10	<10

* The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prevents the disclosure of personally identifiable student information. KSDE has determined that any quantities less than 10 may be personally identifiable.
Source: Kansas State Department of Education, https://datacentral.ksde.org/report_gen.aspx (Retrieved July 2019)

Growing up in poverty is one of the greatest threats to healthy child development. Poverty and financial stress can impede children’s cognitive development and their ability to learn. It can contribute to behavioral, social and emotional problems, and poor health. According to the National Kids Count (a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the well-being of children in the United States), 14% of children (age 5-17) in Kansas were in poverty in 2016 and 2017. The line graph below clearly demonstrates the lower rate of poverty estimate in eight school districts of Pottawatomie County in 2017.

This indicator is included in the KIDS COUNT Child Well-Being Index. Read the KIDS COUNT Data Book to learn more: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/publications.

Estimates of Poverty by School Districts (2018)

Transportation Information (2019-2020)

	Number of students living *in the district who are transported at district expense and live 2.5 miles or more* from their school**	Number of students living *in the district who are transported at district expense and live less than* 2.5 miles from their school**	Number of students not living in the district who are transported at district expense	Total number of students who are transported at district expense
Wamego	441	168	103	712
Kaw Valley	380	85	0	465
Onaga- Havensville- Wheaton	157	37	9	203
Rock Creek	679	143	0	822
Riley	410	37	55	502
Manhattan-Ogden	2,961	573	11	3,545
Vermillion	287	38	64	389

Source: Kansas State Department of Education, https://datacentral.ksde.org/report_gen.aspx (Retrieved July 2020)