Kent School District students return for first day of classes | Photos

Published 4:02 pm Wednesday, August 27, 2025

The first day of school in the Kent School District arrived on Wednesday, Aug. 27.

Students returned to 44 schools and academies with 29 elementary schools, seven middle schools, four high schools, Kent Laboratory Academy (grades 3-12), Kent Virtual Academy (grades 6-12), iGrad (ages 16-21) and The Outreach Program (ages 18-21).

Kent is considered a one-to-one district, which means its laptop to student ratio for all grade levels is 1:1 as each student is provided with a laptop.

The district serves more than 25,700 students covering roughly 72 square miles, including Auburn, Black Diamond, Covington, Kent, Maple Valley, Renton, SeaTac and unincorporated King County. School district boundaries don’t match up with city boundaries, which is why the Kent district stretches into other communities.

Families in the district speak more than 130 languages, according to the district. English is the most used language followed by Spanish, Dari (Afghanistan), Punjabi (India, Pakistan) and Vietnamese.

Other key statistics:

Student race/ethnicity

• 27.6% White

• 23.9% Hispanic/Latino of any race(s)

• 22.5% Asian

• 12.8% Black/African American

• 9.5% two or more races

• 3.4% Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander

• 0.3% American Indian/Alaskan Native

Student demographics

• 51.4% male

• 48.4% female

• 0.2% gender X

• 28.5% are learning the English language

• 14.3% have disabilities

Student to teacher ratios

(Extra assistance is available to teachers when enrollment exceeds target class sizes)

• Grades K-3

1 teacher to 23 students

• Grades 4-6

1 teacher to 27 students

• Grades 7-8

1 teacher to 30 students

• Grades 9-12

1 teacher to 32 students