Gifford Middle School, Gifford

For 2025-26, Florida graded Gifford Middle School an A, on 68 percent of its possible points.

The Florida Department of Education file lists GIFFORD MIDDLE SCHOOL as school 0081 in district 31, INDIAN RIVER, and the Grade 2026 and Grade 2025 cells on that row both read A (FLDOE 2025-26 grades file, Gifford Middle row). Gifford Middle's row shows 613 Total Points Earned from 9 Total Components and 97 in Percent Tested.

Middle schools have their own scale in the file's note, with the A band opening at 64% of points, B spanning 57% to 63%, and C running from 44% to 56% (middle school scale in the FLDOE file). The Gifford Middle row carries 02 in School Type, which the legend reads as Middle, so that scale is the one applied.

For the A that Gifford Middle holds, Florida's grading law uses the words excellent progress, and an A school may be given more say in allocating the budget it receives from state, lottery, grant and local sources (Florida Statutes 1008.34).

Three flag cells close out the Gifford Middle row: Charter School is NO, Title I is YES, and the economically disadvantaged share is 64.8 percent (FLDOE 2025-26 grades file, Gifford Middle row). The 2024-25 Title I roster from FLDOE lists GIFFORD MIDDLE SCHOOL as Middle/Junior with 595 total students ages 5 to 17 and 413 children from low-income families, printed as 69.41% (FLDOE Title I roster, 2024-25).

Gifford Middle's 2025-26 row reads 88 for Social Studies Achievement, 89 for Middle School Acceleration and 74 for Science Achievement.

No values appear in the third grade reading, graduation or career acceleration columns of the Gifford Middle row, which fits a campus serving grades 6 to 8 (FLDOE 2025-26 grades file, Gifford Middle row).

Section 1008.34 gives schools made up of middle grades 6 through 8 an acceleration component, measured by high school end-of-course passes and industry certifications on the CAPE Industry Certification Funding List, and its component list also includes passing rates on statewide social studies assessments (Florida Statutes 1008.34). Those are the Middle School Acceleration and Social Studies Achievement cells, at 89 and 88 for the Gifford campus.

The English Language Arts lowest 25% cell, 44 at Gifford Middle, follows the students placed in that group by the prior year's statewide test results and gives the percentage of them who made learning gains, as the same statute defines the measure (Florida Statutes 1008.34).

Gifford Middle's row prints A in every column from Grade 2002 through Grade 2012, C in Grade 2022 and the 2023 Informational Baseline Grade, B in Grade 2024 and A in Grade 2025 and Grade 2026.

The FLDOE file has no 2020 column, and the Grade 2021 cell is blank for Gifford Middle (FLDOE 2025-26 grades file, Gifford Middle row). The 2023 and 2015 columns are labeled Informational Baseline Grade, which the file keeps separate from the regular grade columns.

Gifford Middle School is at 4530 28th Court with a Vero Beach mailing address, FL 32967, and the Census geocoder places it in the Gifford census designated place rather than inside a city.

Its match for the address read 4530 28TH CT, VERO BEACH, FL, 32967, the place returned was Gifford CDP, and the Incorporated Places layer came back empty (Census geocoder, 4530 28th Ct). Gifford is a census designated place rather than an incorporated city, and its neighborhood plan is an Indian River County document.

On the school website, the contact block gives the main number as (772) 564-3550 and the fax as (772) 564-3561, and describes the campus as A STEAM School of Marine Science and Robotics (Gifford Middle School website). Its menus include Families, Dining, Transportation, Guidance, Instructional Materials and Athletics.

Indian River County's 2014 Gifford Neighborhood Plan names Gifford Middle School among five educational facilities it lists in East Gifford, alongside Dodgertown Elementary School and St. Peter's Academy (2014 Gifford Neighborhood Plan, Indian River County). The same plan set an objective that school safety improvements at Gifford Middle School would be identified by 2016, under a traffic and safety heading.

The NCES directory for the School District of Indian River County lists gifford middle school at 4530 28TH CT with 608 students in grades 6-8 (NCES district school list, page 1). That count comes from the federal search's 2024-25 column, while the Title I roster figure above uses a different count for students ages 5 to 17.

Gifford Middle runs from 8:10 a.m. to 2:51 p.m., the district's middle school and K-8 schedule, with modified days ending at 1:00 p.m.

In the 2026-2027 School District of Indian River County Parent Guide, the schedule line for middle and K-8 schools gives an 8:10 a.m. start and 2:51 p.m. dismissal, with 1:00 p.m. dismissal on modified days, and the Gifford Middle website banner carries the same 8:10 am to 2:51 pm window (SDIRC 2026-2027 Parent Guide). Elementary schools in the same guide start at 9:00 a.m.

The guide's school contact table lists Gifford Middle School at 4530 28th Court with phone 564-3550, grades 6th to 8th and the hashtag #MyGMS, and places the district office on 57th Street in Vero Beach at 564-3000 (SDIRC 2026-2027 Parent Guide).

Gifford Middle enrollment runs through the Focus Parent Portal, and the district runs a separate School Choice application annually, from November 1 until the end of June.

The Parent Guide lists what Indian River County asks for at enrollment: a birth certificate, a photo ID, a school physical completed less than one year from the school start date, the DOH 680 Certificate of Immunization, a lease or mortgage with two current utility bills, and emergency contacts (SDIRC 2026-2027 Parent Guide). Students transferring in, including those headed to Gifford Middle, also bring a recent report card or Florida test scores.

Under the guide's School Choice section, one application per student may name as many as three choice schools, and once the lottery runs, families get ten days to take or turn down what they are offered (SDIRC 2026-2027 Parent Guide). A Focus account linked to the student is required.

Florida's controlled open enrollment law, section 1002.31, requires a district's posted process to include a lottery for assignment, an appeals process for hardship cases and a way for parents to request that siblings attend the same school (Florida Statutes 1002.31). The Parent Guide points Gifford Middle families to the district enrollment website for the full open enrollment details.

Last verified: October 22, 2026, after a new read of the Gifford Middle row in FLDOE's 2025-26 grades file and its 2024-25 Title I roster line, the school website, the SDIRC 2026-2027 Parent Guide, the NCES district list, the 2014 Gifford Neighborhood Plan, sections 1008.34 and 1002.31, and a Census geocoder match for 4530 28th Court.