The top reported proficiency rate is 81% in Science. The lowest is 66% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Alafia Elementary School
Alafia Elementary sits on Culbreath Road in Valrico, an unincorporated, family-oriented suburb in eastern Hillsborough County. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Hillsborough County Public Schools district. Its enrollment puts it in a range typical for suburban elementary schools serving that grade band.
The community around the school is decidedly auto-dependent. Valrico grew up as a residential suburb east of Brandon, organized around master-planned subdivisions and deed-restricted neighborhoods rather than a walkable center. State Road 60 carries the commercial activity, and residents generally drive to Brandon or Tampa for employment and entertainment. Publicly reported sources describe it as a bedroom community with a family-centric rhythm built around schools, weekend sports leagues, and neighborhood parks. Civic anchors include the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library on Bloomingdale Avenue, the Valrico Recreation Center, and nearby conservation lands such as Sydney Dover Conservation Park. HART Route 46 runs along SR-60 and serves the Valrico Commons area, though most families rely on cars for daily life.
On the housing side, the Valrico zip code carries home values that sit noticeably above both the Florida and national medians, and they have dipped modestly year over year. Rents have moved only slightly upward over the same period. Monthly ownership costs, at current mortgage rates, represent a meaningful affordability stretch relative to median national income. Hillsborough County voters approved a one-mill property tax referendum in November 2024, publicly reported as generating salary supplements for teachers and support staff, with the levy running from July 2025 through June 2029. For homeowners in the district, that adds a real annual cost worth factoring into a housing calculation.
Parents should also know that the district approved a major boundary rezoning for the 2024-2025 school year, affecting a large number of schools and potentially shifting many students to different assignments. Families new to the area would do well to confirm current zoning directly with Hillsborough County Public Schools.
Turning to academics, Alafia reports state assessment results on Florida's FAST exam across grades three through five, and on the statewide science assessment at fifth grade. The picture is broadly solid. Math proficiency climbs across the grade levels tested, with the fifth grade sitting at a particularly strong mark. Science proficiency at fifth grade is the school's strongest single result, placing the large majority of tested students at or above the proficient threshold. Reading results follow a somewhat different pattern: third and fifth grade come in at levels close to the math scores, but fourth grade reading lands a bit lower, the one area where a parent might want to ask the school how it supports students through that transition year. Chronic absenteeism and IEP and English learner data were not available in the data provided, so those dimensions of student support remain gaps a parent would want to explore with the school directly.
The school serves a moderately diverse student body. White students make up the largest share, with Hispanic students the next largest group, followed by smaller shares of Black, multiracial, and Asian students. Roughly three in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning the school draws a mix of economic circumstances, with the majority of families above the income threshold for that program. Program offerings beyond the core curriculum were not available in the data.
No multi-year trend data was available to assess whether performance is improving or holding steady, and the comparison framework flags that Hillsborough County has only one district in the comparison set, so peer positioning against neighboring districts is not calculable from this data alone.
Alafia fits families seeking a suburban elementary school with strong math and science outcomes, in an established residential community that trades walkability for neighborhood space, good proximity to Tampa's job market, and a settled family-oriented environment.
See more original research from School Decision →