Best Elementary Schools in Minnesota for Special Education Students

Check out our new feature available only on SchoolDigger: rankings for different groups of students in Minnesota!

Every year, the Minnesota Department of Education shares test results for various student groups in each school. We use these results to find out which schools do best for each group and list them from the best to the worst.

Additionally, we also compare the performance of the subgroup to the performance of the school as a whole. This makes it easy to see if, for example, Special Education students are overperforming or underperforming their peers in each school.

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish Minnesota test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the MCA-III test scores by the Minnesota Department of Education. The most recent update was on Friday, August 29, 2025.

Be the first to know when we post new test scores and rankings!

School														Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2019)							Ranking (Special Education vs All Students - 2025)					ID
Rank (of 562)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Statewide Rank Percentile (Special Education)	Statewide Rank Percentile (All Students)	Rank Percentile Difference from All Students	SchoolDigger Rating (Special Education)	SchoolDigger Rating (All Students)	ID
562	Paul & Sheila Wellstone Elementary	Public, Magnet	PK, KG-5	1041 Marion St	Saint Paul	55117	Ramsey County	Saint Paul Public Schools	No	Yes	No	Yes	(651) 290-8354	492	48	10.1	79.1%	51 (10.4%)	88 (17.9%)	226 (45.9%)	102 (20.7%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	25 (5.1%)	$18,198							0.0%	3.9%	3.90%			273384002454
561	HOPE Community Academy Elementary	Public, Charter	K-5	720 Payne Ave	Saint Paul	55130	Ramsey County	Hope Community Academy	Yes	No	No	Yes	(651) 796-4500	434	51	8.5	89.2%	0 (0.0%)	15 (3.5%)	9 (2.1%)	405 (93.3%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	5 (1.2%)	$14,114							0.2%	6.5%	6.36%			270023003482
560	Excell Academy Charter	Public, Charter	PK, KG-8	5800 65th Ave N	Brooklyn Park	55429	Hennepin County	Excell Academy Charter	Yes	No	No	Yes	(763) 533-0500	548	35	15.8	87.0%	1 (0.2%)	510 (93.1%)	26 (4.7%)	3 (0.5%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	8 (1.5%)	$15,757							0.4%	4.8%	4.46%			270018403137
559	Waubun Elementary	Public	4-6	1013 3rd St	Waubun	56589	Mahnomen County	Waubun-Ogema-White Earth Schools	No	No	No	Yes	(218) 473-6171	162	17	9.6	69.1%	23 (14.2%)	0 (0.0%)	3 (1.9%)	0 (0.0%)	136 (84.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	$11,974							0.5%	15.7%	15.18%			274212001755
558	St. Paul City Primary School	Public, Charter	PK, KG-5	215 University Ave W	Saint Paul	55103	Ramsey County	St. Paul City School	Yes	No	No	Yes	(651) 225-9177	313	23	13.6	89.5%	6 (1.9%)	73 (23.3%)	159 (50.8%)	62 (19.8%)	1 (0.3%)	0 (0.0%)	12 (3.8%)	$17,124							0.7%	0.7%	0.02%			270014202721
557	Sumner Elementary	Public	PK, KG-4	805 8th Ave NW	Austin	55912	Mower County	Austin Public School District	No	No	No	Yes	(507) 460-1100	387	29	13.4	72.1%	86 (22.2%)	54 (14.0%)	168 (43.4%)	44 (11.4%)	0 (0.0%)	17 (4.4%)	18 (4.7%)	$12,892							0.9%	7.5%	6.56%			270345000156
556	Red Lake Elementary	Public	1-5	24900 Elementary Street	Redlake	56671	Beltrami County	Red Lake Public School District	No	No	No	Yes	(218) 679-3329	526	42	12.5	81.4%	1 (0.2%)	0 (0.0%)	15 (2.9%)	0 (0.0%)	501 (95.2%)	0 (0.0%)	9 (1.7%)	$22,794							1.1%	0.6%	0.49%			273051001302
555	Brooklyn Center Elementary School	Public, Magnet	PK, KG-5	1500 59th Ave N	Brooklyn Center	55430	Hennepin County	Brooklyn Center Community Schools	No	Yes	No	Yes	(763) 561-4480	708	61	11.6	79.9%	46 (6.5%)	326 (46.0%)	205 (29.0%)	77 (10.9%)	2 (0.3%)	0 (0.0%)	52 (7.3%)	$13,813							1.2%	0.8%	0.44%			270624000274
554	Bruce F Vento Elementary	Public	PK, KG-5	409 Case Ave E	Saint Paul	55130	Ramsey County	Saint Paul Public Schools	No	No	No	Yes	(651) 293-8685	446	39	11.4	87.0%	41 (9.2%)	167 (37.4%)	60 (13.5%)	140 (31.4%)	3 (0.7%)	0 (0.0%)	35 (7.8%)	$18,990							1.4%	1.1%	0.28%			273384001575
553	Prodeo Columbia Heights Elementary	Public, Charter	2-4	4141 University Ave NE	Columbia Heights	55421	Anoka County	Prodeo Academy	Yes	No	No	No	(763) 205-9950	227	29	7.8	90.7%	9 (4.0%)	152 (67.0%)	62 (27.3%)	1 (0.4%)	0 (0.0%)	2 (0.9%)	1 (0.4%)								1.6%	12.5%	10.90%			270038005318

Sign up for updates!

Be the first to know when we update our rankings!

Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for Minnesota

Elementary Schools Middle Schools High Schools Districts Cities

New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for MN student subgroups:

Female Students Male Students Asian Students African American Students Hispanic Students Native American Students White Students Multi-racial Students English Language Learner Students Low Socio Economic Status Students

About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on MCA-III Math, MCA-III Reading test scores released by the Minnesota Department of Education.
These rankings were last updated on August 29, 2025, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the Minnesota Department of Education, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the Minnesota Department of Education.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

Public School Districts and Their Services: A Comprehensive Guide

A high school boy doing homework on a laptop

Virtual Schools: The Future of Online Education

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Minnesota Department of Education.