South King County, WA

King County - more than just Seattle

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King County, WA, of which Seattle is the city seat, is known for high tech, great coffee and great wealth.  The first-ring communities of South King County where the Tukwila and Highline Public School Districts are located, however, are a very different world from Seattle.

 

Rich Cultural Diversity

South King County is vibrant and rich in culture, due to being one of the nation's most diverse communities.  Washington State is 4th in the U.S. for refugee resettlement, and South King County receives 70% of those families. Over a quarter of students and their families are newly landed immigrants from 80 different nations.  Spanish is the most common of more than 70 different langauges spoken in the region, including Somali, Nepali, Burmese, Serbo-Croatian, Samoan and Arabic.

Critical Needs

South King County has:

  • the largest share of King County’s total population and a much higher proportion of households with children
  • the highest number of families living below the poverty level
  • the largest number of single-parent households.

 

South King County's schools have:

  • a greater than 40% turnover in the student population each year
  • more than 65% of students who are eligible for free or reduced price lunch
  • more than one-quarter of students who are English Language Learners
  • dropout rates double that of other parts of King County.


The CSC Impact

Although South King County has a disproportionately large number of low-income and immigrant families with children, few services are available to meet their needs.  Often, the services that are available are not well coordinated or are not easily accessible.

Community Schools Collaboration's full service community school model is vital to this region.  CSC creates partnerships between the schools, local government and community providers.  Our coordinated services bring resources and opportunities to children and their families so they can succeed.

For more information about King County, please visit http://www.kingcounty.gov.

To help children in South King County succeed in school and life, please donate to CSC's work via JustGive.org.