Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 29117

Zip code 29117 in Orangeburg, SC, is home to just one elementary school, Felton Laboratory Charter School, a K-8 charter school serving 279 students under the School Public Charter School District.

For parents considering this area, the most important takeaway is that Felton Laboratory Charter School shows a very mixed academic profile. The school’s greatest strength is in middle school English Language Arts (ELA). In the 2025-2026 school year, 6th graders achieved a 72.4% proficiency rate, which was 16.1 percentage points higher than the state average, and 7th graders also performed competitively. However, this strength is not consistent across all grades or subjects. The school struggles significantly with mathematics, with proficiency rates in grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 falling 13 to 28 percentage points below state averages in the most recent year. There is also dramatic year-to-year volatility in ELA scores; for example, 3rd grade ELA proficiency plummeted from 76.2% in 2024-2025 to just 39.3% in 2025-2026, a swing that is likely due to the school’s small size of roughly 31 students per grade, where the performance of a few students can heavily skew results.

Overall, the school has maintained a consistent 2-star rating and ranks in the lower third of South Carolina schools (32nd percentile). Chronic absenteeism is 22.2%, which matches the state average but is higher than the district’s 18.4%. Despite spending a substantial $14,208 per student, academic outcomes remain below state averages in most subjects, particularly math. While the school shows pockets of excellence in middle school ELA, parents should be aware that math instruction appears to be a systemic challenge, and the high variability in scores from year to year suggests that a child’s experience could differ greatly depending on their grade and cohort.