Declo Senior High School

Declo Senior High School is a small rural high school in Declo, Idaho, serving 326 students in grades 9–12 as part of the Cassia County Joint District. The school stands out first for its exceptional attendance culture: chronic absenteeism is just 3.1%, about four times lower than the state average of 13.8%, and far better than nearby schools like Minico Senior High School (12.1%) or Cassia Junior/Senior High School (43.4%).

Academically, Declo's strongest subject is English language arts. On the 2025–2026 end-of-course ISAT, 76.5% of students were proficient, well above the state's 61.3% and dramatically better than Burley Senior High School's 43.9%. The school has also posted historically strong graduation rates near 95–97%, though the most recent 2024–2025 figure of 82.5% may be a data reporting artifact. Math and science are the weaker subjects: math proficiency was 23.5% in 2025–2026 (state: 33.1%), and science was 35.3% (state: 41.2%). Very few students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (35%) compared to nearby schools, so these STEM gaps are more likely an instructional challenge than a poverty issue.

With just 326 students, Declo's state ranking swings widely between 1 and 4 stars depending on the cohort. Compared to Burley Senior High School in the same district, Declo is notably stronger in reading, science, and overall rank. Raft River Junior/Senior High School outperformed Declo in all subjects on the 2024–2025 all-grade tests, likely helped by its much smaller class sizes (10.5 students per teacher vs. Declo's 19.4), though Declo's end-of-course ELA score was far higher. Bottom line: Declo is a well-attended, literacy-focused school with a solid foundation, and the main opportunity for improvement is boosting math and science achievement.