Summary:
There is just one elementary school serving zip code 29940 in Seabrook, SC: Whale Branch Elementary, which serves grades PK through 5 and enrolls 409 students.
For parents considering this area, the most important takeaway is that Whale Branch Elementary is a very well-resourced school that is struggling academically. The school spends an exceptionally high $26,592 per student and maintains a very low student-teacher ratio of 8.7, meaning class sizes are small and there is significant financial investment in each child. However, test scores tell a different story. On the 2025-2026 SC READY assessments, proficiency rates in ELA ranged from 44.7% (5th grade) to 53% (4th grade), while math proficiency ranged from just 29.8% (5th grade) to 47% (4th grade). These figures are consistently 15 to 20 percentage points below both the Beaufort 01 district and state averages. The school's state ranking has improved from the 8th percentile (0 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 23rd percentile (1 star) in 2025-2026, showing a positive but modest upward trend.
One of the biggest red flags for parents is chronic absenteeism. At 28.7%, the rate is significantly higher than the district's 21.3% and the state's 22.3%, meaning nearly one in three students is missing substantial school time. This likely plays a major role in the academic gaps. The data also reveals specific weak spots: 5th-grade math is a critical concern with only 29.8% proficiency, and 5th-grade ELA shows a 19-point gap versus the state average. Interestingly, performance is inconsistent across grades—for example, 4th-grade ELA in 2024-2025 was close to the state average, while 5th-grade ELA was far below. This suggests that learning gaps may compound as students move up, and that the school's high spending and small classes are not yet translating into competitive outcomes. Parents should ask the school about its attendance initiatives and how it plans to address upper-grade math and reading proficiency.
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