School
Public schools
The street address decides the public school, not the town name alone. Call the school administrative unit and ask which elementary and which high school that address feeds. Some towns do not run a high school. They pay tuition to an academy or a neighboring district.
Which school you get
New Hampshire is organized into school administrative units, the SAUs. A town can be its own district or share one. The Department of Education’s profiles are the place to see a district’s enrollment and spending. The map’s school layer shows public school locations. It does not assign your house to a building.
Derry is the example families already ask about. High-schoolers there go to Pinkerton Academy, a public academy, not to a high school the town runs itself. Ask any town you are considering the same question: who teaches the older kids, and is it in town?
Charter, private, and home
Charter schools are public schools under their own statute. A seat is not automatic for your address. Private schools are a family contract, not a town assignment.
Homeschool is the other ordinary choice. You file nothing with the state to start. The rules and the Education Freedom Account amounts are on Homeschool. Public-school test scores do not answer whether a homeschooler has to test. They do not.
If you want a picture of public-school scores, the 2024 NAEP results are on that same page: New Hampshire’s public schools scored above the national average in grade 4 and grade 8 reading and math. Use them to compare the state, then use the district profile to compare the town.
Sources
- NH Department of Education — districts, charters, and home education.
- NH DOE iPlatform — district data reports.
- Pinkerton Academy — the public academy that serves Derry’s high-schoolers.
- RSA 194-B — charter schools.
- Homeschool — the filing answer, and the NAEP chart with NCES links.