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Kiona-Benton City High School

Benton City · WA · Kiona-Benton City School District · Public

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📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 29% of US high schools

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How Kiona-Benton City High School compares for families

What families should know about Kiona-Benton City High School.

  • LocallyWA sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Special Programs, Liberty Christian School, Three Rivers Home Link and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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Get an email when Kiona-Benton City High School's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21
SAT/ACT test-takers
0
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
0.0
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
4.3%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
65.0%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

📊 State assessment · WA Smarter Balanced · grade 10

SBAC grade 10 — met or exceeded standard

School year 2024-25. Levels 3 + 4 combined ("at or above grade level"). Cells suppressed by the state when sample is small.

English Language Arts
34.2%
6.1% exceeded · 39 students tested
Math
9.6%
2.6% exceeded · 11 students tested

Source: WA state DOE Smarter Balanced results. Levels 1–2 = below standard, 3 = met, 4 = exceeded. Headline = level 3 + level 4 combined.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Lower-need school

Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)

13.3%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

🏛️ Your state's public flagship

University of Washington-Seattle Campus

42%
admit rate
$12,973
in-state tuition/yr · $43,209 out-of-state

The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $14,091/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.

See the full University of Washington-Seattle Campus profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
17.7%
Roughly average. The national post-COVID rate climbed to ~16% nationwide; this school is in the middle of the pack.
Students absent 15+ days
77
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
218:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
2.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
22
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Grade 12 went from 102 in 2021 to 101 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-1.0%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of +1.8%/year, projecting from 2024's 435 students:

2025
443
2027
459
2029
476

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Revenue upside

At $15,560 per student in district revenue, the 41 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $637,960/year in additional funding.

District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.

Nearby high schools — the local competition

The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Special Programs
West Richland
Public 5.7 2
Liberty Christian School
Richland
Private 9.5 503 +39.0%
Three Rivers Home Link
Richland
Public 9.8 160 +125.4%
Richland High School
Richland
Public 10.0 2,218 +7.5%
Rivers Edge High School
Richland
Public 10.5 245 +14.0%
Twin Rivers Group Home
RICHLAND
Public 10.6
Hanford High School
Richland
Public 11.5 1,959 +3.8%
Prosser High School
Prosser
Public 13.4 877 -2.1%

For Parents

Researching colleges for your kid at Kiona-Benton City High School?

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For School Admins looking at enrollment trends: request an Enrollment Trend Audit →