Deer Valley Unified School District #97 (DVUSD) is a Pre-KâÂÂ12 school district, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. DVUSD is the fifth largest school district in the state of Arizona, serving areas of Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria, Anthem, New River, New River and numerous unincorporated areas of northwest Maricopa County. Situated within the Sonoran Desert, the District has grown from its modest beginnings as a county accommodation school located in New River in 1934 to 42 campuses serving 34,000 students: 15 KâÂÂ6 elementary schools, 19 KâÂÂ8 schools, three middle schools, and five comprehensive high schools, plus an online K-12 school and 2 alternative schools. Early childhood education opportunities are offered through DVUSD Community Education Preschool/PreKindergarten (15 sites), and Head Start (five sites). Twelve schools receive Title I funding. District facilities include District Office, Support Services Center, Transportation and Administrative Services.
the Cañon Elementary School District sends high school students and junior high level special education students to DVUSD. In 1984, 27 students from Cañon attended DVUSD. That year Deer Valley sued Cañon, which stated it was unable to pay for the tuition costs of the district and acknowledged that it was billed for the correct amount. The Arizona Republic described this as a "friendly lawsuit", since according to the DVUSD officials, Cañon district officials stated that the lawsuit was the only mechanism through which it could pay DVUSD.
Deer Valley Unified School District offers 6 schools with language immersion programs. Five of the schools offer Mandarin to students and one school with a Spanish immersion program. The schools with a language immersion program are Desert Sage Elementary, Hillcrest Middle School, Sandra Day O'Connor High School, Gavilan Peak, and Boulder Creek High School. The immersion program, half of the day the students are taught in the targeted language being learned and the other half of the day is taught in their native language.