If you are shopping the western suburbs and a particular school district matters to you, the useful question is not which town is best. It is which district covers which town, and what the same district costs in each one. Those answers are factual, and they are below.
Short version: several districts serve multiple towns, and the towns are priced very differently. If a district is your requirement, you almost certainly have more towns available to you than you think.
How we put this together
District names, numbers and the communities each one serves come from the Illinois State Board of Education directory, read in September 2026. Typical home values are Zillow’s Home Value Index for July 2026, pulled on 7 September 2026. Effective property tax rates are 2025 county figures via Ownwell. Boundaries move. Verify any specific address with the district before you write an offer.
What you won’t find here: a ranking. We don’t rank districts or towns, and we don’t characterise who lives in them. Test scores and ratings are published by the state and by private sites, and you can read them yourself. What we can tell you is which district covers which ground, where the lines cross town borders, and what that does to price.
Town by town
| Town | Elementary district | High school district | Typical home value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downers Grove | 58 (parts in 66, 68) | 99 | $513,663 |
| Hinsdale | 181 | 86 | $1,282,503 |
| Clarendon Hills | 181 (parts in 60) | 86 | $697,430 |
| Oak Brook | 53, parts in 181 | 86, parts in 99 | $1,003,334 |
| Burr Ridge | 62, parts in 181 | 86 | $863,499 |
| Western Springs | 101 | 204 | $904,552 |
| La Grange | 102 | 204 | $677,320 |
| Elmhurst | 205 (unit district, K-12) | $647,169 | |
| Glen Ellyn | 41 | 87 | $584,435 |
| Wheaton | 200 (unit district, K-12) | $518,505 | |
| Naperville | 203 central, 204 south and west (unit districts) | $629,473 | |
The districts that cross town lines
Three of them matter most to a buyer with a budget.
Hinsdale Township 86 covers Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Oak Brook, Burr Ridge, Darien, Willowbrook and part of Westmont. The typical home in Hinsdale runs about $1.28M. In Clarendon Hills it runs about $697K. Same high school district.
Lyons Township 204 covers La Grange, Western Springs, La Grange Park, Countryside and neighbouring villages. Western Springs sits near $905K, La Grange near $677K.
Community High School District 99 covers Downers Grove, Woodridge, and parts of Westmont, Darien, Lisle and Oak Brook. Downers Grove sits near $514K, and the surrounding communities generally lower.
Our honest read: if you have settled on a district and you are stretching to afford the headline town, look hard at the neighbouring one before you decide. You may be paying a large premium for a village address rather than for the school assignment you actually want.
Where it gets complicated
Oak Brook and Burr Ridge are the two towns where the address genuinely decides the answer. Both are split across multiple elementary districts, and a piece of Oak Brook sits in District 99 for high school rather than 86. Do not shop either town on the town name alone.
Downers Grove is split too. Most of the village is District 58, but the south end runs into Center Cass 66 and a piece into Woodridge 68.
Verify before you offer
- Use the district’s own boundary lookup, not a portal.
- Check the elementary district and the high school district separately.
- Confirm the campus, not just the district, because township districts run more than one.
- Save a dated screenshot.
- Near a border, get it in writing from the district office.
Common questions
Which towns have a single district for all grades?
Elmhurst 205, Wheaton Warrenville 200, and Naperville’s 203 and 204 are unit districts covering kindergarten through twelfth grade. Everywhere else you are dealing with two.
Can I use the district to compare towns?
You can use it to work out where your requirement is available and what it costs in each place. That’s what the table above is for. We don’t rank the districts themselves.
Where are the published ratings?
State assessment data is at illinoisreportcard.com, by school and by district. Read the primary source rather than a summary.
Next step
Send us the address you’re looking at and we’ll confirm the elementary, middle and high school assignment in writing, with the district’s own lookup as the source. Tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll do it before you tour.
Related reading: every DuPage district and the ground it covers and what the tax bill would be.
District information read from the Illinois State Board of Education directory, September 2026. Home values: Zillow Home Value Index, July 2026, pulled 7 September 2026. Next review: March 2027.
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