Original Research by School Decision on Hillsborough Ese Contracted Residential Placement
Hillsborough ESE Contracted Residential Placement is a specialized school operated under the Hillsborough County School District, sitting on East Palm Avenue in Tampa's 33605 zip code. Its classification as a special education school in the contracted residential placement category sets it apart from virtually every other school in the district: it is designed to serve students with exceptional needs whose placement in a standard school setting has been determined, through the IEP process, to be insufficient. That function defines everything about how a parent or guardian should read the information here.
The school's reported enrollment stands at zero across all grade levels it serves, which span middle and high school years. This is not unusual for a program of this type. Contracted residential placements are typically funded and activated on an individual-student basis, meaning the roster at any given data snapshot may show no standing enrollment even when students are actively placed and receiving services. A family whose child is being considered for such a placement would engage with this program through the district's ESE office, not through a standard enrollment process.
Because this is a specialized placement rather than a school families choose from a catalog, most of the standard measures simply do not apply and the data reflects that clearly. State assessment results are absent. There is no graduation rate in the data. Demographic composition, attendance patterns, and chronic absenteeism figures are all missing. The neighbor comparison framework flagged each of these metrics as not applicable due to missing entity values, and for a school of this type, that absence is expected rather than a warning sign.
Program offerings, course access, and staffing information were not available in the data provided.
The broader Hillsborough district context is worth noting for any family navigating the district's special education system. Voters approved a property tax referendum in late 2024, publicly reported to add a meaningful annual cost for homeowners, with proceeds directed toward teacher and support staff compensation. Publicly reported accounts indicate this was intended to address ongoing staffing shortages, which could matter to families thinking about the stability of specialist and support staff in programs like this one. The district also carried out a substantial boundary rezoning for the current school year, shifting thousands of students across the county, though placements tied to IEPs typically operate outside standard attendance zone logic.
The surrounding zip code in Tampa sits in a housing market where values have softened modestly compared to the prior year, while rents have edged upward. The broader Tampa context is a dense, economically active city with a downtown undergoing significant redevelopment, major healthcare and defense employers, and neighborhoods that range from historic preservation districts to areas in active transition.
For a parent whose child is being referred to or considered for a contracted residential placement, the most direct next step is a conversation with the Hillsborough district's ESE department. The data available here establishes what the program is and where it sits administratively, but the specifics of services, providers, staffing, and placement criteria are not captured in what was provided.
See more original research from School Decision →