North County Charter School, Winter Beach near Vero Beach

North County Charter School is a public charter elementary on Old Dixie Highway in Winter Beach, near Vero Beach, serving prekindergarten through grade 5 under its own governing board.

The federal NCES directory record for 2025-2026 gives the school's NCES ID as 120093003410 and its state ID as FL-31-5003, places it in the Indian River district, and marks it Type: Regular school, Status: Open and Charter: Yes, with a PK to 5 grade span (NCES school detail, North County Charter School). The school's own site describes its program as serving VPK to 5th grade and focusing on Essential Florida Learning Standards, Leadership, Character Development and Robotics Technology (North County Charter School website). The North County Charter School site menu carries School Board, Board Minutes, Monthly Meeting, Board Policy and Audits pages for the board that governs it. Last verified: October 22, 2026, by re-reading the NCES detail record, the FLDOE 2026 grades row, the school's home page, the Census geocoder and gazetteer, section 1002.33 of the Florida Statutes and two district documents.

Section 1002.33 begins by classifying every Florida charter school, North County Charter School included, as a public school within the state's public education program (section 1002.33, Florida Statutes). The same section lets a district school board sponsor charters in its own county and makes each charter accountable to its sponsor for performance.

North County Charter School earned an A for 2025-26, up from a B for 2025, with 64 in the Percent of Total Possible Points cell of its state row.

In the FLDOE workbook 2025-26 School Grades as of September 1, 2026, row 1748 lists NORTH COUNTY CHARTER SCHOOL as school 5003 in district 31, INDIAN RIVER, with A under Grade 2026 and B under Grade 2025 (FLDOE 2025-26 grades workbook). The North County Charter School row records 513 Total Points Earned from 8 Total Components and 99 in Percent Tested. It is flagged YES as a charter and NO for Title I, its School Type is 01 (Elementary) and its Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students cell reads 48.4. Under the elementary scale printed in the same file, 62% of points or greater is an A.

The district's July 1, 2026 release on the state results said that every charter school in the School District of Indian River County earned an A that year (SDIRC release on 2026 grades), a statement the North County Charter School row in the workbook matches.

The North County Charter School row shows B for 2024 and for the 2023 baseline, C for 2022, A and B cells from 2013 to 2019, A in every filled column from 2004 to 2012, and an N in the Grade 2002 column.

Further along row 1748, the Grade 2024 cell reads B, the Informational Baseline Grade 2023 cell reads B, Grade 2022 reads C and Grade 2021 is blank (FLDOE workbook, North County Charter School row). Grade 2019 reads B, Grade 2018 A, Grade 2017 B and Grade 2016 A; the Informational Baseline Grade 2015 and Grade 2014 cells both read A, and Grade 2013 reads B. Several older columns are empty for the school, among them Grade 2009, Grade 2006 and Grade 2003, and the Grade 2002 cell holds the letter N, which the workbook does not define.

North County Charter School is at 6640 Old Dixie Highway with a Vero Beach mailing address, and the Census geocoder places that address in Winter Beach CDP, outside any incorporated city.

NCES lists both the mailing and the physical address as 6640 OLD DIXIE HWY VERO BEACH FL, 32967, phone (772) 794-1941, and classes the location as Suburban, Midsize (22) (NCES directory record). The school's site gives the same street as 6640 Old Dixie HW, Vero Beach, FL 32967, with the phone written +1 772-794-1941 (school contact block).

A Census Bureau geocoder query for 6640 Old Dixie Highway matched 6640 OLD DIXIE HWY, VERO BEACH, FL, 32967 and placed it in Winter Beach CDP (GEOID 1278225), with no city returned (Census geocoder, 6640 Old Dixie Highway). The 2024 Census gazetteer lists Winter Beach CDP with 6.879 square miles of land and 0.015 square miles of water (Census 2024 place gazetteer for Florida). The Winter Beach community guide describes the area itself.

NCES counted 312 students at North County Charter School in the 2024-2025 school year, alongside 18.00 FTE classroom teachers, or 17.33 students per teacher as NCES prints the ratio.

The NCES record breaks the North County Charter School enrollment down by grade and by group for 2024-2025 (NCES enrollment characteristics). The figures below are copied from that record; NCES notes that details may not add to totals.

The same North County Charter School record lists 164 male and 148 female students, and it counts 93 students eligible for free lunch and 24 for reduced-price lunch, 117 in all as NCES totals them. NCES adds that, from the 2022-23 school year, Magnet and Title I status are no longer part of the Common Core of Data release; the FLDOE row, by contrast, has a Title I cell, which reads NO.

North County Charter School, like every Florida charter, may not charge tuition, and when applications exceed space the law requires a random selection that gives every applicant an equal chance.

Section 1002.33 applies to North County Charter School as to every Florida charter: the school must stay nonsectarian in what it teaches, whom it admits, whom it hires and how it operates, and it may charge no tuition or registration fees other than the fees other public schools normally charge (Florida charter school statute). An eligible student who applies on time must be enrolled unless applications outnumber the space in a program, class, grade level or building; when they do, a random selection gives every applicant the same chance. The statute lets a charter give enrollment preference to several groups, among them brothers and sisters of current students, children of board members and children of school staff.

The school's home page links Enrollment and Schedule a Tour pages for families who want to start (North County Charter School home page). Transportation is arranged separately: the district Parent Guide asks charter families, like choice and magnet families, to call the Department of Transportation at 772-978-8801, option 2, for an assigned depot stop (SDIRC 2026-2027 Parent Guide). The guide's district overview counts 5 charter schools among SDIRC's campuses.

A governing board runs North County Charter School, and Florida law requires that board to meet in public in the district at least twice a school year and to have its finances audited every year.

Under section 1002.33, the board of North County Charter School, like each charter school's governing board, must hold at least two public meetings per school year in the school district where the charter school is located; the meetings must be noticed, open and accessible to the public, and attendees must be able to receive information and give input on the school's operations (section 1002.33, governing board duties). The statute also lists the public meetings and records law, section 286.011, and chapter 119 on public records among the laws a charter must follow, and it makes the board responsible for retaining a certified public accountant or auditor for the annual financial audit, whose report goes to the governing body.

Those records have a home on the North County Charter School site, whose menu links Meet the Board, Board Minutes, Monthly Meeting, Board Policy and Audits pages (school website menu). A resident of Winter Beach or Vero Beach who wants to attend a meeting or read an audit can start there, and the state grades file and the NCES record give the outside view of the same school.