Pleasant City Elementary School

Pleasant City Elementary School in West Palm Beach, FL, is a small PK-5 school serving 315 students in a highly disadvantaged area, with over 90% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The most critical challenge facing the school is an extraordinarily high rate of chronic absenteeism—44.1% in the 2023-2024 school year—which is nearly double the district average and significantly higher than the state average. This persistent issue, which spiked to 63.4% during the pandemic, is the primary barrier to academic success, as students cannot learn if they are not in class. Despite spending $17,041 per student—above the district average—the school has consistently ranked in the bottom 15% of Florida elementary schools, earning a 1-star rating in most years.

The contrast with nearby schools is stark. Just two miles away, Palm Beach Public School has a free/reduced lunch rate of only 31.46% and a chronic absenteeism rate of 14.8%, and it ranks in the 79th percentile with a 4-star rating. In 5th-grade math, Pleasant City’s proficiency is 44%, compared to Palm Beach Public’s 84%. Similarly, Renaissance Charter School At West Palm Beach spends less per student ($11,090) but achieves far higher test scores. While other nearby low-performing schools like Roosevelt Elementary (44.8% absenteeism) and Lincoln Elementary (43.9%) also struggle with attendance, Pleasant City’s poverty concentration is the highest among its immediate neighbors.

There is a glimmer of hope: recent data shows a slight uptick in the school’s ranking to the 15th percentile (1-star) in 2025-2026, up from the 8th percentile the previous year. Test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) saw significant year-over-year gains, with 3rd-grade proficiency jumping from 29% to 43% and 4th-grade from 38% to 52%. Math scores, while still below district averages, are a relative strength—4th-grade math reached 48% in 2025-2026, close to the district’s 60%. These improvements suggest that targeted interventions may be starting to take effect, but until the chronic absenteeism crisis is addressed, the school will likely continue to struggle to compete with its more affluent neighbors in the Palm Beach district.