Summary:
The York 04 district in South Carolina is home to 11 elementary schools serving roughly 8,187 students in grades K-5 (with some Pre-K programs) across the Fort Mill and Tega Cay communities, and the district itself is ranked #1 out of 75 in the state.
If you're looking for top academic performers, River Trail Elementary is the clear standout, ranking #11 in the state with the highest test scores in nearly every subject—including a remarkable 91.1% proficiency in 3rd-grade math. Kings Town Elementary is the district's rising star, jumping from #34 to #9 in the state rankings, with exceptional 4th-grade scores (94.5% in ELA, 92.5% in math) and a low 3.9% chronic absenteeism rate. Orchard Park Elementary showed the most dramatic improvement, leaping 56 spots to #27, while Tega Cay Elementary has been consistently elite, ranking in the top 30 for three straight years and posting the district's best 4th-grade science scores (83.5%). At the other end, Fort Mill Elementary ranks lowest at #191, with 5th-grade math proficiency (51.9%) barely above the state average.
District-wide, students outperform state averages by 16-25 percentage points across all subjects, and chronic absenteeism is remarkably low at 8.5% versus the state's 22.3%. However, there are notable challenges. The most striking is the spending-achievement paradox: Riverview Elementary spends the most per student ($16,907) with the lowest student-teacher ratio (11.0), yet ranks 137th, while Gold Hill Elementary spends the least ($12,207) and ranks 43rd. There's also a district-wide drop-off in 5th-grade math—for example, Sugar Creek Elementary falls from 73.3% proficiency in 3rd grade to just 57.7% in 5th. Attendance clearly matters: the three schools with the lowest absenteeism rates (Doby's Bridge at 3.1%, Kings Town and River Trail at 3.9%) are all top-40 ranked, while Riverview's 11.6% rate correlates with its lower standing. Finally, year-to-year rankings can be volatile—Springfield Elementary swung from #63 to #39 to #69—so it's wise to look at multi-year trends rather than a single year's snapshot.
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