Salt River Elementary School, formerly known as Salt River Indian Day School,[1] is a tribal elementary school located on the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community reservation in unincorporated Maricopa County, Arizona.
[3] A previous facility, made of adobe, opened circa 1935.
That year, it began enacting the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, the first school for Native Americans to do so.
[4] In 1989 Keven Ann Willey of The Arizona Republic wrote that the school and the reservation had low profiles, stating, "Indeed most Arizonans don't even know the school, or the [reservation], exists."
The school had budget problems, a dropout rate higher than average, and test scores below par.