Summary:
ZIP code 96777 is served by a single school: Kau High & Pahala Elementary School, a PK–12 alternative school in Pahala with 488 students. It belongs to the Hawaii Department of Education. Because it is the only school in the area, there are no other local campuses to compare it against — every educational result for this ZIP code reflects this one school. Families here get a single campus covering all grade levels, from preschool through high school.
Several numbers stand out for parents. The school reports a graduation rate of 87.0% for 2024–2025, which is a strong figure in absolute terms. At the same time, chronic absenteeism is 48.0%, meaning nearly half of students are chronically absent — a real engagement concern. The free/reduced lunch rate is 67.01%, so a clear majority of students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, which is important context for interpreting achievement and resource needs. The student-teacher ratio is 11.2:1, suggesting relatively small classes or more staffing per student. Per-student spending is listed at $19,124, but that figure is from 2018–2019 and is much older than the other metrics, so it should be treated as historical background only.
Academically, results are mixed across the tested subjects. English Language Arts is the strongest area at 30% proficient in 2025–2026, though that is down from 35% the prior year. Math is consistently the lowest subject — 17% proficient in 2025–2026, up slightly from 15% — and remains below one in five students. Science showed the largest gain, rising from 22% to 28% proficient. Notably, ELA's lead over Science shrank from 13 points to just 2 points. All three subjects remain below 50% proficiency in both years, indicating broad academic challenges. ELA and Math use Smarter Balanced Assessments, while Science uses HSA, so cross-subject comparisons are not perfectly equivalent.
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