James E. Stephens Elementary School

The school is terrible when it comes to disciplinary for bullying they don’t deal with the situation. They just offer whole scholarships to transfer the student that’s getting bullied instead of dealing with the bully my kids first year there at the school was in 2025 the first week of school they were getting bullied the whole first week and no one did anything but offer a whole scholarship. I’ve went to Polk County school boards called the correct people that need to be called but nothing got done due to the fact that the schools are already under investigation for one of the teachers calling the student a monkey I do not wish to put my kids in the school. I don’t advise anyone to put their child in school. They do not handle things well they don’t have the proper teaching or teachers to get anything done.

good school to my kids never had any issues

This school relies on IPad learning to teach students and they skew averages to make students appear to be on level, when really their “on level” is remedial. There is no organization to the pick up/drop off area, so it’s the most time consuming and poorly managed car line I’ve ever seen. Standards compared to Hillsborough county are sub par on all levels. Bully is an issue here as well.