Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 06076

Zip code 06076 in Connecticut is served by three elementary schools — Stafford Elementary School (grades 1–5), West Stafford School (PK–K), and Union School (PK–8) — spanning the Stafford School District and the Union School District. Stafford Elementary is by far the largest school with 438 students and is the only one with recent test scores and a current state ranking, placing 290th out of 491 Connecticut elementary schools in 2025–2026. Union School is the smallest at just 49 students but offers the lowest student-to-teacher ratio (6.2:1) and the highest per-student spending at $30,009, while West Stafford serves only pre-K and kindergarten and has the highest chronic absenteeism rate at 16.5%.

Because Stafford Elementary is the only school with recent SBAC/NGSS data, academic comparisons are limited. Its 2025–2026 results show a two-tier profile: 5th graders outperformed the state in ELA (55.8% vs. 53.5%) and science (55.3% vs. 52.9%), and 3rd graders exceeded the state in math (54.4% vs. 52.2%). However, 4th graders lagged badly — nearly 17 points below the state in both ELA and math. Scores also swung sharply year to year, with 5th-grade ELA jumping almost 18 points while 4th-grade math fell 8.4 points, suggesting significant cohort variability. Stafford’s chronic absenteeism (14.5%) is better than the state average (16.4%), while West Stafford’s (16.5%) is just above it. Free/reduced lunch rates are similar at Stafford (40.6%) and West Stafford (39.8%), while Union School is lower at 26.5%.

The most striking takeaway is the spending gap: Union School spends 65% more per student than Stafford Elementary, largely due to its tiny size, yet no recent test scores or rankings exist to show whether that investment pays off academically. West Stafford and Stafford form a natural feeder pipeline — children move from pre-K/K at West Stafford into grades 1–5 at Stafford — while Union keeps students PK–8 in one small setting. For parents, Stafford Elementary offers the only current benchmark, revealing clear strengths in 3rd and 5th grades but a weak spot at 4th grade. Union School’s personalized environment and low absenteeism data are appealing, but its lack of test data makes its true performance unknown.