Summary:
The five schools in Santa Rosa Beach, FL (zip code 32459) serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and are part of the highly-ranked Walton County School District, which holds a 4-star rating and ranks in the 86th percentile statewide. The standout school is Seaside Neighborhood School, a public charter/magnet school serving grades 5-12 that earned a 5-star rating and ranks in the 96th percentile among Florida high schools. In contrast, South Walton High School is a traditional public high school with a 4-star rating and a perfect 100% graduation rate, though its academic proficiency scores lag behind Seaside's—for example, 58% proficient in 9th grade ELA versus Seaside's 88%.
Among elementary schools, Dune Lakes Elementary School is a rising star, improving from a 4-star to a 5-star rating and jumping from the 88th to the 95th percentile in state rankings. Both Dune Lakes and Van R. Butler Elementary School show exceptional math performance, with 5th grade math proficiency at 90% and 87% respectively, far exceeding the state average of 62%. Emerald Coast Middle School is a solid 4-star school but has a notable weakness in 7th grade math, where only 65% of students are proficient—the lowest score among all subjects tested in the area.
A key finding is the dramatic "charter effect" at Seaside, which achieves superior results despite lower per-student spending ($11,607) compared to other schools. This is likely driven by its exceptionally low chronic absenteeism rate of 2.7%, versus 12.4% at South Walton and up to 20.7% at other schools. The data strongly suggests that student attendance and engagement are critical drivers of academic success in this zip code, with all schools outperforming district and state averages in graduation rates and absenteeism.
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