School and Community Information

Dale Delivers . . .

One of the first questions that I get asked when someone is new to the area, is: “What are the schools like?” Between them St Louis and St Louis County have over a dozen public school districts, several with multiple high schools and numerous private schools. When you add the rest of the metropolitan areas (both Missouri and Illinois) that number increases to over 100 public school districts! As a result, it can be a daunting question to have to answer in a short sentence! I’ve put together a set of links that will take you to information that has been compiled by the State of Missouri when they annually rate all the school districts in the state, by our local media who routinely run reports about the status of our schools, and by companies who maintain websites allowing you to find out about schools Nationwide.

Over the years, I’ve found that the best way to find out about a school is to visit it. Talk to the principal, the teachers, the parents and the students to see how they feel about the school. Once your child is enrolled in a school, actively get involved. While we can’t all be there on a daily basis as a school volunteer, there are many activities at all levels in every school where parents can make a difference, even if it’s only for an hour once a month. Even if you don’t have children in the school district, there are many ways that you can help the schools in our area. Most of the schools (private and public) have yellow and green “dumpsters” on the school ground for recycling paper, phone books, magazines, and other paper products. The money made from the recycling goes for special school projects. The elementary schools often collect Betty Crocker points and Box Tops for Education labels off of things like soup cans, cereal boxes and boxed food items. These can be dropped off at the school office.

Please note that under a special program, the school districts in St Louis County have joined to provide services to children with special needs through the Special School District. The St Louis City School District and the School Districts in the neighboring counties (St Charles, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, etc) provide services in-house rather than through a special co-operative program.

For information on the Public K-12 School Districts and the Private Schools in the Great St Louis (Missouri) area, please follow the links below:

- Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, State of Missouri
- MSDIS Missouri Census Data
- Great Schools!

Here’s the links to the different school districts in the Greater St Louis area, for your reference:

Lets start with a couple of maps showing what school district is located where – first the St Louis County School District Map, then the Post Dispatch map and finally one that is tied to the State of MO and gives info as well as locations