Chelsea’s comprehensive high school is Chelsea High School. As of February 2023, there were 1,63l students enrolled at CHS. 89.2% of the school is Hispanic, 32.3% are Non-English speaking (EL level 1 & 2), and 86.7% are deemed low income or economically disadvantaged by the state of Massachusetts. Most recent statistics have indicated a sharp drop in the number of students dropping out of Chelsea Public Schools, largely due to the creation of the Chelsea Opportunity Academy through Barr’s Engage New England Initiative. 79% of CHS students qualify as low-income, 13% of students currently have an individualized educational plan (IEP), and 32.3% are English Language Learners (ELLs). Over the next few years, CHS projects to have a large increase in the number of students who qualify for special education services (from 221 to 270 within the next year). The population size of the school has increased from 1,498 (SY21-22) to 1,631 (SY22-23) within the last year. Since 2014, the number of CHS students who are ELLs has been steadily increasing. In 2014, 18.5% of students at CHS were ELLs. In SY22-23, 31% of students are ELLs. The percentage of students who are at risk is consistently high. Regrettably, only 29% of students report that they have positive feelings about going to classes, and 38% of students report they believe they are valued members of their school community. When asked about their sense of belonging to the Chelsea school community, 38% report a positive sense of belonging to the Chelsea Public Schools community.
