Best Schools in Farmington, Utah: A Parent's Guide

I have had four kids go through Davis County schools, and I taught elementary music before I sold real estate. So when a family calls me about moving to Farmington and the first question is "which schools would we be in," I do not treat that as small talk. It is usually the whole decision.

Farmington is a little unusual for a city this size. It has four neighborhood elementary schools, its own junior high right in the middle of the historic district, its own high school out by Glovers Lane, and a charter school inside the city limits. That means two families who both say "we want to live in Farmington" can end up with completely different school experiences depending on which side of a street they buy on.

This is the guide I wish someone had handed me. Every school below, with grade levels and addresses, then the questions parents actually ask me.

How school grades are organized in Farmington

Farmington is served by Davis School District, and the district splits grades three ways:

That 7–9 junior high and 10–12 high school split surprises people moving in from other states, where 9th grade is usually a high school year. In Farmington, your 9th grader is still at Farmington Junior High.

Public schools in Farmington, Utah

These are the Davis School District schools located in Farmington. Click any name to go to that school's own website.

Elementary schools (K–6)

Junior high (7–9)

High school (10–12)

A note on Farmington High, because it matters if you are reading older listings or older advice: it did not exist until the 2018–19 school year. Before that, Farmington teenagers went to Davis High in Kaysville or Viewmont in Bountiful. When Farmington High opened, the district redrew high school boundaries across this part of the county. If you are reading a five-year-old forum post about "the Farmington high school situation," it is out of date.

Charter schools in Farmington

Ascent Academies of Utah is a tuition-free public charter school with several campuses along the Wasatch Front, and the Farmington campus is right here in town. Charter schools do not use neighborhood boundaries — any Utah family can apply regardless of address — but they also do not guarantee a seat. Enrollment runs on an application and lottery system, and popular grades fill up. If a charter is part of your plan, get on the list early and do not assume your address does anything for you either way.

Farmington has two Spanish dual language immersion elementaries

This is one of the best-kept secrets in town, and it is a real reason some families choose one Farmington neighborhood over another.

Two of Farmington's four elementary schools host Davis School District's Spanish dual language immersion (DLI) program:

In the immersion model, students spend part of each day learning core subjects in Spanish and part in English, starting in 1st grade — so you apply during your child's kindergarten year, not before kindergarten. The district's priority application window runs from mid-January to March 1 for the following school year. Knowlton Elementary also posts the district DLI application for its families, so ask at your own school even if it is not a host site.

If immersion matters to you, tell me early. It genuinely changes which neighborhoods I show you.

A parent's guide to Farmington schools

How do school boundaries work in Farmington?

Every home address in Farmington is assigned to one elementary school, one junior high, and one high school, based on lines the district draws. You do not choose your assigned school — your address chooses it for you.

The part that catches people: these lines do not follow the boundaries you would guess. They are not the city limits, they are not the ZIP code, and they are not "whichever school is closest." Two houses on the same street can feed different elementary schools. A home three minutes from Farmington Elementary can be assigned to Knowlton. I have watched a family fall in love with a house because of a school it did not actually feed.

The lines also move. Farmington has been one of the faster-growing cities in Davis County, and when a school fills up, the district studies and redraws boundaries. That is a normal part of living here, not a crisis — but it means a boundary is a snapshot, not a promise.

How do I check which schools a specific Farmington address feeds?

Here is how to actually know:

1. Call the school you hope you are in and read them the full street address. The front office looks it up on the district's own boundary map. This is the fastest reliable answer and it is free.
2. Call Davis School District at 801-402-5261 and ask for the boundary or planning office. They keep the official maps and can confirm all three levels — elementary, junior high, and high school — in one call.
3. Check the district's Boundary Permits page for current boundary and enrollment information before you write an offer.
4. Ask me. If you are working with me on a Farmington home, verifying the schools on that specific address is part of my job, not an extra. I will make the call before you are emotionally committed to a house.

Do this before you go under contract, not after. Boundaries are not negotiable, and a house is not returnable.

What is a boundary permit, and how does open enrollment work?

Davis School District calls it a boundary permit — it is the district's version of open enrollment. It lets your child attend a Davis school other than the one your address is assigned to, if that school has room.

Here is the timeline, and the early window is the one that matters:

How to apply:

• Current Davis families: log in to the myDSD portal, choose Tools, then Apply for Open Enrollment Permit.
• New to the district or coming from outside it: call Student & Family Resources at 801-402-5159.
• Incoming kindergarteners: request the permit directly at the school you want.

Two honest warnings. First, a permit is per-student and not permanent — it does not follow automatically to junior high, and it does not create a right to a seat next year. Second, and this is the big one: do not buy a house counting on a boundary permit. Popular Farmington schools fill their in-boundary seats first, and a school that is closed to permits stays closed no matter how good your reasons are. Buy the boundary you want. Treat a permit as a bonus, not a plan.

How do schools affect home values in Farmington?

They do, and I will be specific about how rather than hand-waving at it.

In a city like Farmington, school assignment is one of the quiet forces setting price per square foot. When two similar homes a mile apart sell for meaningfully different numbers, boundary lines are often part of the explanation — along with lot size, age, and how far you are from the freeway noise.

Three things I have seen hold true here:

Desirable boundaries hold value in a slow market. When the market cools, homes in sought-after school boundaries tend to keep their buyer pool. Families relocating for work do not get to wait for a better year — they move when their job says to move, and they shop by school. That demand is stubborn in a way that other demand is not.

Farmington High changed the map. When the high school opened in 2018 and the district redrew boundaries, homes that had been "Davis High" or "Viewmont" homes became "Farmington High" homes overnight. That kind of change moves how buyers see a neighborhood. It is the clearest local proof that boundaries are worth checking rather than assuming.

A boundary is not a substitute for the house. I will not tell you a school boundary makes a bad house a good buy. Roof, foundation, floor plan, and street still decide whether you are happy on a Tuesday in February. The boundary decides who else wants your house when you sell.

If you are weighing two Farmington homes and school boundary is one of the differences, that is a conversation worth having out loud, with the actual numbers in front of us.

Which is the best elementary school in Farmington?

I get asked this constantly, and I am going to give you an unsatisfying answer because it is the true one: there is not one.

Farmington's four elementary schools are all Davis School District schools, with the same curriculum, the same district standards, and the same teacher pay scale. What actually differs between them is the things a ranking website cannot measure — how big the school is, how new the building is, whether it hosts Spanish immersion, how far your kid walks, what the parent community is like, and whether the principal is someone you click with.

So flip the question. Instead of "which school is best," ask "which of these schools is the best fit for my child?" A kid who would thrive in a Spanish immersion classroom at Eagle Bay might be miserable in one. A kid who needs a smaller, quieter building has a different right answer than a kid who wants the biggest possible friend group.

Ratings sites will hand you a number out of ten. That number is mostly a reflection of the demographics of the neighborhood, not the quality of the teaching. I would rather you spend an hour in the building than an hour on the rankings.

What should I ask when I tour a Farmington school?

Take the tour. Every one of these schools will let you walk through, and thirty minutes in the halls tells you more than a month of research. Things worth asking:

• What is the average class size in the grade my child is entering, right now?
• Is the school currently over or under capacity, and is a boundary study underway?
• How many students transfer in on boundary permits, and is the school open or closed to permits this year?
• What does before- and after-school care look like, and where is the waitlist?
• How does the school handle a child who is ahead in math, or behind in reading?
• What does parent involvement actually look like here?

And then pay attention to the thing you cannot ask about. How do the adults talk to the kids in the hallway? Do the students look comfortable? I taught elementary music. You can feel a healthy building in about five minutes.

When does my child start kindergarten?

Utah's rule is straightforward: children need to be five years of age before September 2 of the year in which admission is sought. So a child turning five on August 20 starts that fall. A child turning five on September 10 waits a year.

Register at your assigned neighborhood elementary — each of the four Farmington schools has kindergarten enrollment on its own website. If you want a school other than your assigned one, request the boundary permit directly at that school.

We are moving mid-year. Does that change anything?

Not much, and that is good news. Davis School District enrolls students year-round, and your assigned school takes your child whenever you arrive. What a mid-year move does affect is boundary permits — if you land in March hoping to permit into a full school, you are in the late window and taking your chances. If you have any flexibility on timing and a specific school matters to you, closing before the early window opens on November 15 puts you in the drawing instead of the leftovers.

Matching the right school to the right house

Here is how this usually goes wrong. A family picks a school first, then looks for houses, and discovers that nothing in that boundary matches their budget or their must-haves. Or they pick a house first, then find out in week three of escrow that it feeds somewhere they did not expect.

The work is doing both at once, and that is the part I am actually good at. I know which Farmington neighborhoods sit in which boundaries, I verify assignment on the specific address before you fall in love, and I can tell you honestly when the boundary you want and the house you want are not going to be the same property — and what the reasonable trade looks like.

I am a Realtor with Equity Real Estate, I specialize in Farmington and the Davis County cities around it, and I have had four children in Davis County schools. This is my home district, not a market I read about.

If you are moving to Farmington and schools are driving the decision, send me the two or three schools you care about most and I will build your home search around them — including telling you when a boundary is not worth what you would give up to get it.

Julie Burningham, Realtor — Equity Real Estate