The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Math. The lowest is 42% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Hector A. Cafferata Jr Elementary School
Hector A. Cafferata Jr. Elementary sits on Santa Barbara Boulevard in the northwest part of Cape Coral, serving children from kindergarten through fifth grade. Pre-kindergarten is listed among the grades served but shows no enrolled students in the current data. The school is a regular public elementary within the Lee County School District.
Cape Coral itself is a sprawling, canal-laced residential city in southwest Florida, one of the fastest-growing in the state. It was engineered in the 1950s by developers who dug hundreds of miles of waterways and raised lots above flood grade, then sold land without reserving much space for commercial life. The result is a car-dependent community where daily routines revolve around single-family homes, boating, and a handful of commercial corridors. A genuine South Cape downtown has developed in recent years, but civic anchors like the regional library and parks are spread across the city's wide grid rather than concentrated anywhere. Much of the growth is happening in the northern sections, exactly where Cafferata is located, and the city is reportedly only partly built out with heavy construction activity ongoing, including large master-planned communities nearby. The housing market near the school has seen home values and rents soften over the past year, moving notably below where they sat a year prior. Prices are running below the Florida statewide benchmark in the current market, which publicly reported sources describe as a buyer's market.
The school enrolls somewhere in the range that makes it a mid-to-large elementary for its grade band. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with white students making up the second-largest group and Black and multiracial students also represented. A large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this in economically mixed-to-high-need territory by Florida standards. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in the data provided, which is worth asking the school about directly, particularly if your child has language or learning support needs.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture is uneven and parents should look at the grade-by-grade shape carefully. In math, third and fourth graders are performing near or just above the statewide midpoint, but fifth-grade math proficiency drops well below half of students meeting the standard. In ELA, third-grade reading comes in at a level below half of students proficient, fourth grade is near the midpoint, and fifth grade falls back down. Fifth-grade science sits below half as well. Trend data across years is not available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether these results are improving, holding steady, or declining. No comparison to other schools within Lee County is possible from the data provided, as the comparison set contains only one district. A parent who wants context on where these results sit relative to other Cape Coral elementary schools should ask the district or consult Florida's school accountability reports directly.
A few district-level factors bear directly on Cafferata families. Lee County replaced its longstanding open School Choice assignment system with a Proximity Plan beginning with elementary grades in 2023-2024. Under that plan, students are assigned to schools closer to home, transportation is only provided within defined proximity zones, and families within a short distance of the school do not receive district busing. Anyone moving into the area should confirm their specific address, which school it maps to, and whether bus service applies before making a housing decision. Separately, a voter-approved half-cent sales tax has funded capital improvements across the district, including safety technology and new school construction, but it is set to expire in 2028, and district officials have publicly raised concern about what that means for ongoing construction, technology, and security funding if voters do not renew it. The district superintendent is now an elected, partisan position following a voter referendum, a governance change that took effect with the 2024 election cycle.
Program details specific to Cafferata, including any enrichment, arts, or intervention offerings, were not available in the data provided and would be worth exploring with the school directly.
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