Accreditation In 2017, the DeKalb County School District received a full, five-year renewal of its accreditation from
AdvancED, through 2022. The renewal comes after the district regained full accreditation in 2016. On December 17, 2012, the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools announced that it had downgraded the DeKalb County School District's status from "on advisement" to "on probation" and warned the school system that the loss of their accreditation was "imminent." On January 21, 2014, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools announced that it had upgraded the DeKalb County School District's status from "probation" to "accredited warned" which is below full accreditation status.
Academic Achievement In 2017, the DCSD College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) score increased to 70, up from 66 in 2016. Since 2016, the CCRPI score for elementary schools increased five points; middle schools increased three points; and high schools increased nearly one full point. In 2017, more than 2,500 students in DCSD took the ACT, earning a composite score of 19.8, compared to last year's composite score of 19.4. That same year, more than 3,500 students took the SAT; the district's total composite score continues to improve year-over-year. DeKalb's 2017 total mean score for the SAT was 980. The four-year graduation rate for DCSD's Class of 2017 was 74 percent, a four-point increase from the 2016 graduation rate of 70 percent. Between 2013 and 2017, the District graduation rate improved 14 percentage points.
Indictment Former DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis was indicted in 2012, along with former DeKalb County Schools Chief Operating Officer Pat Pope (Reed), and others, on criminal charges related to a school construction scandal. The indictment listed four counts of
racketeering, as well as
theft by taking and
bribery. On October 15, 2025 the DeKalb County Board of Education voted to accept the resignation of Superintendent Devon Horton who had been serving since 2023. An indictment accusing him of offering district contracts in the Evanston-Skokie School District 65 outside of Chicago to his friends, then receiving about $85,000 in kickbacks from the contracts between 2020 and 2023 triggered the vote and subsequent resignation.
Shooting and hostage situation On August 20, 2013, 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill, who was armed with an
AK-47, entered the front office of Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, an elementary school, and barricaded himself. He fired six shots at police officers outside, who returned fire. The school's students were evacuated. Antoinette Tuff, a school bookkeeper, was able to convince Hill to surrender without further violence. Tuff was later praised by President
Barack Obama for her courage and calmness in defusing the situation. Hill later pleaded guilty to 13 counts, including aggravated assault, false imprisonment, making terroristic threats, and burglary, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Bus drivers' strike From April 19–23, 2018 nearly 400
school bus drivers for the district participated in a
strike over low pay and little
employee benefits. Inspired in part by the
concurrent nationwide teacher strikes in states such as
West Virginia,
Oklahoma and
Arizona, bus drivers for the district planned a "sick-out". About 42 percent of bus drivers in the county participated, causing nearly 60-90 minute delays in students being picked up for school. As a
right-to-work state, public sector employees are prohibited in
Georgia from striking. The strike resulted in at least 7 bus drivers, particularly ones who helped organize the strike, being terminated of employment.
Emory and CDC annexation by Atlanta The City of Atlanta, in 2017, agreed to annex territory in DeKalb County, including the
Centers for Disease Control and
Emory University, effective January 1, 2018. In 2016 Emory University made a statement that "Annexation of Emory into the City of Atlanta will not change school districts, since neighboring communities like
Druid Hills will still be self-determining regarding annexation." By 2017 the city agreed to include the annexed area in the boundaries of
Atlanta Public Schools (APS), a move decried by the leadership of the DeKalb county district as it would take taxable property away from that district. The area ultimately went to APS, ==Schools and centers==