Lawtey Elementary School, Lawtey FL

Original Research by School Decision on Lawtey Elementary School

Lawtey Elementary School sits on North Park Street in Lawtey, a small rural town in Bradford County in north-central Florida, a short drive north of the county seat of Starke. The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, making it the only school building most children in this town will attend before moving on to secondary grades. The enrollment is modest, consistent with what you would expect from a small rural community, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic character of the surrounding area.

The town itself is quiet and agricultural, built along a U.S. highway corridor rather than around any dense commercial center. Residents drive for nearly everything, and civic anchors like the county library sit in Starke rather than Lawtey itself. Outdoor recreation draws people to nearby Lake Sampson and a wildlife management area along the New River. The population has edged downward over recent decades, and the housing stock leans toward single-family homes on larger lots, rural acreage, and manufactured housing. Home values here sit meaningfully below Florida's statewide median, which makes Bradford County relatively accessible for buyers by state standards, though mortgage rates have trended upward. The economy is modest, with the Lawtey Correctional Institution, the school district, and small agricultural and service businesses making up the bulk of local employment, publicly reported sources note.

On state assessments, Lawtey Elementary's results for the most recent year show an uneven picture across grades and subjects. Third-grade reading and math are both solidly above the majority of students scoring proficient, which is an encouraging foundation. Fifth-grade math and fifth-grade science are also in a range that suggests reasonable command of the material at that level. Sixth-grade math is a clear strength, with a high share of students reaching proficiency. The weaker spots are in fourth-grade reading and fourth-grade math, where proficiency drops noticeably relative to the other tested grades, and fifth-grade reading, which falls in a middling range. Fourth grade in particular is a grade worth asking the school about directly, to understand whether there are supports in place and whether those results have shifted. Trend data across multiple years was not available, so it is not possible to say from this dataset whether these patterns are improving, stable, or worsening.

The district has publicly reported a shift toward a data-driven instruction model anchored in regular progress monitoring through Renaissance Star assessments in reading and math, running from kindergarten through high school. Parents receive reports tied to this system, and digital reading access through myON extends into home use. Bradford County as a whole showed publicly reported gains on state assessments in the most recent year, with third-grade reading improving sharply and sixth-grade math climbing as well, which aligns with what the school-level data shows for Lawtey's sixth grade. Middle-grade reading remained an area of lower performance across the district, again consistent with what appears at Lawtey.

Graduation rate data does not apply here because the school ends at sixth grade. Civil rights and discipline data were not available in the data provided. IEP and English learner population figures were also absent, so families with students who may need specialized services should ask the school directly about what those programs look like.

For a family settling in Lawtey or the northern part of Bradford County, this is the local public elementary option, a small school in a small rural town with a mixed academic profile that has real strengths in early and upper-elementary math and some gaps in middle-elementary reading worth monitoring. The community around it is settled, affordable by Florida standards, and very much car-dependent and rural in character, with Starke serving as the practical hub for most services and activities.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 374%

School 74% · District 54% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 50% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 55% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 689%

School 89% · District 82% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 377%

School 77% · District 68% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 45% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 54% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 669%

School 69% · District 61% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median

Science

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 58% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median

This schoolBRADFORD, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income70%Higher-income87%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income55%Higher-income50%4 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income60%Higher-income73%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income73%Higher-income67%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income80%Higher-income67%13 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income64%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income53%Higher-income87%33 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income87%Higher-income91%4 pp gap