District Spotlight
Bibb County Cut Chronic Absenteeism 23.9 Points From Its Peak
Bibb's chronic absenteeism rate fell from 53.7% in 2021 to 29.8% in 2025, the largest peak-to-current improvement among 68 sizable Georgia districts.
Georgia
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Georgia, grounded in Georgia Department of Education data.
Noel Cochran Returns to Hall County to Lead North Hall Middle School
Noel Cochran, a Hall County native who spent a decade in the district before leading Tesnatee Gap Elementary, is now principal at North Hall Middle School, which recorded 812 students in 2025-26.
Forsyth County Cut Chronic Absence to 8.7%. Atlanta Improved but Stayed at 31.9%
Forsyth County's chronic absence rate fell to 8.7% while Atlanta improved to 31.9%, leaving a 23.2-point gap in 2024-25.
Georgia's New Attendance Law Covers Nine in Ten Districts
SB 123 bans absence-only expulsions and mandates intervention teams, but 199 of 231 districts already exceed the 10% chronic absenteeism threshold that triggers the law.
DeKalb Reached 81.6% but Trailed Five Metro Peers
DeKalb County's graduation rate rose to 81.6% in 2025, yet it ranked last in a six-district Metro Atlanta comparison.
More Coverage
Equity
Foster Care Graduates at Half the State Rate
Georgia's foster care students graduate at 50.1%, 37 points below the state average and the lowest of any subgroup. Homeless youth face a similar gap.
Demographics
Georgia's English Learners Still Post Lower Absence Rates
English learners had a 19.0% chronic absenteeism rate in 2025, 1.4 points below Georgia overall, but the gap has narrowed since 2018.
District Spotlight
Gwinnett's White-Black Graduation Gap Falls to 1.5 Points
Georgia's largest district improved from 67.6% to 85.4% over 14 years while its cohort grew by 3,320 students and became majority-minority.
Absence
Girls Now Miss More School Than Boys in Georgia
A longstanding pattern reversed in 2022: Georgia girls now have marginally higher chronic absenteeism than boys, and the gap has not closed.
Special Populations
One in Four: Special Education's Attendance Crisis
A quarter of Georgia's special education students are chronically absent, a gap that predates the pandemic and has barely moved in eight years.
Achievement Gap
Georgia's Special Ed Graduation Rate Has More Than Doubled
Georgia's special ed graduation rate rose from 29.8% to 78.4% in 14 years, the largest gain of any subgroup. The gap to peers shrank from 42 to 10 points.
District Spotlight
Crawford County Graduated 42% of Its Students. Now It Graduates 93%.
Crawford County posted a 50.7-point graduation rate gain since 2011, the second-largest in Georgia, one of 15 districts rising from below 60% to above 90%.
Demographics
Georgia's Hispanic Cohort Doubled. The Rate Still Climbed 25 Points.
Georgia's Hispanic graduating class grew from 11,654 to 27,276 in 14 years while the graduation rate rose from 57.6% to 82.3%, producing 15,739 additional diplomas per year.
Charter Schools
Georgia Cyber Academy Has Not Had a Good Year in Seven
Georgia's largest virtual charter has seen chronic absenteeism rise every year since 2019, reaching 17.2% even as the state's rate fell.
Graduation Rate
76 Georgia Districts Hit All-Time Highs
In 2025, 76 Georgia districts recorded their best-ever graduation rates while zero hit all-time lows, an unprecedented concentration of success across the state.
