Hidden Oaks Elementary School

Hidden Oaks Elementary School is a small K-5 school in the Cedar Hills area of Jacksonville, FL, serving 191 students as part of the Duval County Public School District, where 67.5% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

This school has experienced extreme performance volatility over the past decade, with a dramatic spike in 2022-2023 when it ranked in the 61st percentile (3 stars), followed by a catastrophic collapse to the 8th percentile (0 stars) for the 2025-2026 school year—a drop of over 1,100 places in state rankings. A severe chronic absenteeism crisis is likely a primary driver of these poor academic outcomes, with 52% of students chronically absent in 2023-2024, significantly higher than the state average of 31.4%. Math proficiency is a critical weakness, with rates roughly half the state average across all tested grades, while 5th-grade Science is a relative bright spot, with 52% proficiency in 2025-2026 compared to the state average of 60%.

Hidden Oaks is located less than 2.5 miles from two of Florida's highest-performing elementary schools: John Stockton Elementary (98th percentile, 5 stars) and Fishweir Elementary (79th percentile, 4 stars), which have much lower poverty rates and chronic absenteeism rates of 12.9% and 22%, respectively. Among its more comparable peers like Cedar Hills Elementary and Gregory Drive Elementary, Hidden Oaks is the lowest-performing and most volatile. Notably, the school's per-student spending ($11,877) is higher than many higher-performing peers, suggesting that funding alone cannot solve the deep-rooted attendance crisis that must be addressed for any meaningful improvement.