Lancaster High School
LANCASTER · NY · LANCASTER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
CLARENCE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL → WILLIAMSVILLE NORTH HIGH SCHOOL → ORCHARD PARK HIGH SCHOOL → SWEET HOME SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL → WILLIAMSVILLE EAST HIGH SCHOOL → WEST SENECA WEST SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL → HUTCHINSON CENTRAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL → FRONTIER SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL →🧭 A parent's read
- 97% graduate on time. Nearly every student who starts 9th grade here finishes in four years — the strongest baseline signal a school can post.
- Course rigor in the top 10% of US high schools. 20 AP courses plus advanced math and lab-science depth — measured against every high school in the country, not just the neighborhood.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
📋 At a glance
- 📚 20 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 6 calculus classes · 7 physics · 13 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 85th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts graduation data, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Lancaster High School compares for families
Standout academic depth by national standards.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 10% nationally with 20 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyNY 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: CLARENCE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, WILLIAMSVILLE NORTH HIGH SCHOOL, ORCHARD PARK HIGH SCHOOL and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
Get alerts when Lancaster High School's numbers change
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
90th percentile nationally
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-2185th percentile by test-taker volume
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.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
90th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
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.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Mixed-income school
Below Title I eligibility threshold (FRPL < 35%)
25-34% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Below the federal Title I threshold but a meaningful share of the population is income-eligible for free lunch.
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
Stony Brook University
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 $18,784/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
💰 Pay for college in New York
New York's public scholarships
New York's Excelsior Scholarship makes SUNY and CUNY tuition-free for middle-income families — there's no GPA or test gate, but you commit to staying in New York after you graduate.
Tuition-free SUNY/CUNY for NY families under $125k AGI — no GPA or test gate, but you must stay on track and live in New York after graduating. (Stay on-track (30 credits/yr); live & work in NY afterward for the years you received it.)
Official program details ↗Eligibility rules change yearly — confirm with the official program before relying on it. Amounts are recent published figures; awards cover tuition/fees, not housing or books unless noted. Verified 2026-06-14.
🎓 Graduation, Diploma & Readiness
NY status: Good StandingDo students graduate, with how strong a diploma — and how ready?
New York reports not just whether students graduate but which diploma they earn and how college/career/civic ready they are. A Regents diploma with Advanced Designation is the state's most rigorous — it takes extra Regents exams in math, science, and often a world language.
What's a Regents diploma with Advanced Designation? →
Every NY public-school graduate earns a diploma by passing Regents exams (a score of 65+). A standard Regents diploma takes the core set. The Advanced Designation adds more — typically Algebra II and Geometry, an additional science, and a world-language Regents (or an approved alternative). It's the strongest signal of college-prep rigor New York publishes for a graduating class.
What are "readiness" and "NY status"? →
College/Career/Civic Ready is the share of students who reached at least New York's readiness bar — e.g., an advanced diploma, a qualifying exam or college credit, a career/technical credential, military readiness, or civic-readiness measures. NY also rolls this into a weighted CCCR Index (0–200) and a 1–4 performance level. NY status is the state's ESSA accountability designation: most schools are in good standing (managed locally), while a minority are state-identified for Comprehensive or Targeted support.
Source: New York State Education Department, High School Graduation Rate Database + School Report Card (CCCR readiness, ESSA accountability status), 2024-25, All Students, Class of 2025 (4-year cohort). Diploma shares are of the graduating cohort. NYSED masks small-group results for privacy.
📝 Regents Exam Results
How students score on New York's Regents exams.
Regents exams are New York's statewide end-of-course tests — the state's core academic benchmark, and a requirement for graduation. Below: the share of students scoring 65 or above on each, the score that earns diploma credit (and New York's "proficient" / Level 3+ benchmark).
What does "scored 65+" mean on the Regents? →
New York scores each Regents exam on five performance levels. A score of 65 or above earns credit toward a diploma — and under New York's current framework that's Level 3 or above, the state's "proficient" benchmark (the number shown above). Exams are taken when a student finishes the course, so results reflect that subject's instruction, not a single grade.
Source: New York State Education Department, School Report Card — Annual Regents Examinations, 2024-25, All Students. NYSED masks small-group results for privacy and shows only exams with reported results.
Chronic absenteeism
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.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
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
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -0.1%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,682 students:
≈ 11 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $20,202 per student in district revenue, the 11 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $222,222/year in funding at risk.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLARENCE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CLARENCE |
Public | 3.5 | 1,244 | -6.1% |
| WILLIAMSVILLE NORTH HIGH SCHOOL WILLIAMSVILLE |
Public | 7.2 | 1,263 | -2.9% |
| ORCHARD PARK HIGH SCHOOL ORCHARD PARK |
Public | 11.3 | 1,362 | -2.6% |
| SWEET HOME SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL AMHERST |
Public | 8.4 | 1,092 | +6.7% |
| WILLIAMSVILLE EAST HIGH SCHOOL EAST AMHERST |
Public | 5.4 | 939 | -2.4% |
| WEST SENECA WEST SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL WEST SENECA |
Public | 8.6 | 1,060 | -5.7% |
| HUTCHINSON CENTRAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL BUFFALO |
Public | 10.9 | 1,131 | -3.8% |
| FRONTIER SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL HAMBURG |
Public | 14.0 | 1,269 | -5.8% |