The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in Math. The lowest is 42% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Country Oaks Elementary School
Country Oaks Elementary sits on the northwest edge of LaBelle, the county seat of Hendry County in inland southwest Florida, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It is a regular public school within the Hendry district, not a charter or magnet program.
The school is large for a PK-5 campus, with enrollment spread across all grades from pre-k through fifth. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with White students making up roughly a fifth of enrollment and Black students a smaller share. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school solidly in the higher end of economic need for a Florida elementary school. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in what was provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments, math proficiency at third grade comes in above the midpoint, which is the strongest result in the data. Fourth and fifth grade math land at roughly the midpoint. Reading and ELA proficiency across third, fourth, and fifth grades falls below the midpoint for all tested years, as does fifth-grade science. These are not catastrophic numbers, but they are consistent: ELA proficiency is below half across all three tested grades. A parent thinking about their child's reading development would be reasonable to ask the school directly about its literacy intervention programs and how students who are behind grade level are supported.
Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from the data whether these results have been improving, declining, or holding steady. The comparison framework flags only one district in Hendry County, which means a meaningful peer-group comparison against similar county districts was not possible.
The housing market around LaBelle is priced noticeably below the Florida statewide median, and home values have edged down slightly over the past year while state values have moved in a similar direction. Rents in the area run meaningfully higher relative to local income than the mortgage equivalent would, which is an unusual inversion worth thinking through for families deciding whether to rent or buy. Detailed information about LaBelle's character, major employers, and community anchors was not available through research in time for this summary, so that fuller picture of what living in LaBelle looks like day to day is a gap.
Two district-level developments are worth knowing for any family weighing a move to LaBelle. The Hendry County district broke ground in 2026 on a new LaBelle High School, publicly reported as the first new school built in the county in nearly thirty years. The current campus dates to the 1970s and has relied on a significant number of portable classrooms to handle growth. The new facility is designed to house a substantially larger student body with dedicated career and technical education space, a large auditorium, and updated athletic facilities, with an opening targeted for the graduating class of 2027. For a family with a child currently in early elementary school, that building will likely be what greets them in high school. Separately, the school board approved construction impact fees in early 2024, applicable to new residential builds in the county, in response to enrollment growth that publicly reported sources describe as ranking among the highest student generation rates in Florida. Families planning to build a home in the district should factor that cost into their planning.
Program-level detail for Country Oaks itself, including any intervention structures, enrichment offerings, or extracurricular programs, was not provided in the data available.
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