Best High Schools in Zip Code 06351

Zip code 06351, in southeastern Connecticut, is served by two public high schools within the Griswold School District: Griswold High School, a traditional comprehensive high school for grades 9–12 with 606 students, and Griswold Soule Street Academy, a very small alternative school serving grades 7–12 with just 19 students.

Griswold High School is the area's primary school, graduating students at a rate of 91.8%, slightly above the district’s 90.6% and the state’s 91.2%. However, 52.64% of its students qualify for free/reduced lunch, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 26.7% is well above the district's 19.1% and the state's 16.4%. Its 11th-grade science proficiency (41.5%) trails the state average of 47.7%, and its most recent ranking placed it in the 47th percentile with a 2-star rating, down from the 54th percentile a few years earlier. In contrast, Griswold Soule Street Academy serves a far more vulnerable population: 84.21% of its students qualify for free/reduced lunch, and its chronic absenteeism rate is a striking 96.2%—meaning roughly 18 of its 19 students are chronically absent. No academic, graduation, or ranking data are reported for this school, making outcomes impossible to compare.

The most dramatic difference between the two schools is per-pupil spending: Griswold High School spends about $17,375 per student, while Griswold Soule Street Academy spends a remarkable $303,964 per student—roughly 17.5 times more. That extreme figure reflects the high fixed costs of operating a tiny, specialized program with a student-teacher ratio of just 6.3. For parents, the biggest takeaway is that attendance is the area's primary challenge, especially at Soule Street Academy, where nearly every student is chronically absent. Still, Griswold High School manages to post a graduation rate above both the state and district averages despite these hurdles. The largest unanswered question is whether the extraordinary investment in Soule Street Academy is translating into real academic progress, since the available data provide no evidence of outcomes.