Best Schools in Kailua, Hawaii

Kailua sits on Oahu's windward coast with 13 ranked public schools across the city. The average school scores 7.3 out of 10, and 54 percent of schools — seven in total — clear that 7-point threshold. That distribution means consistent performance is the baseline here, not the exception: more than half the city's schools score in the solid-to-strong range.

Elementary schools define Kailua's upper tier. Maunawili Elementary leads the city with a 9.8 out of 10, the highest score in the local rankings. Keolu Elementary follows at 9.2, with Enchanted Lake Elementary at 8.9, Kainalu Elementary at 8.8, and Kaelepulu Elementary at 8.4 rounding out the top five. All five are elementary schools. Families with children in elementary years have access to multiple high-performing options clustered in a relatively small area.

That concentration shapes how parents should approach the Kailua search. School attendance boundaries matter here — Maunawili and Keolu attract serious attention from families choosing a neighborhood, and securing an address in a top zone requires deliberate planning. With five elementary schools all scoring above 8.4, the depth at the top end is real, not just a single standout pulling the average up. The 7.3 city average confirms that performance holds across the full set of 13 schools as well.

For parents with older children, the top five rankings are entirely elementary programs. Families with middle or high school students should evaluate those schools individually rather than relying on the city's strong elementary record as a proxy. For families at the elementary stage, Kailua's school landscape is a genuine asset — a 7.3 average across 13 schools, 54 percent scoring 7 or above, and a top-ranked school at 9.8 make a strong collective case.