African American students accounted for 92% of enrollment at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in 2024-25

In the 2024-25 school year, Martin Luther King Jr. High School enrolled 1,265 African American students, reflecting a 0.5% increase from the prior year, reports from the Georgia Department of Education indicate.

According to the data, the school’s total enrollment for 2024-25 was 1,375 students, with African American students comprising 92% of the student body and representing the school’s largest demographic group.

The school is part of DeKalb County School District, which is overseen from its main office in Decatur.

Lithonia High School recorded the highest number of African American enrollees in DeKalb County School District for 2024-25, with 1,288 African American students among its 129 schools.

More than 1.7 million students attended Georgia public schools during the period, according to the Georgia Department of Education’s Fiscal Year 2026-1 report. Most were in elementary grades, which totaled 787,206 students (45.9%), followed by middle school with 388,733 (22.7%), and high school with 539,092 (31.4%).

Chronic absenteeism continued to present challenges after the pandemic, with 20.7% of Georgia’s students missing at least 10% of school days in 2024, Georgia Department of Education statistics show. In response, GaDOE rolled out a statewide initiative involving a real-time attendance dashboard, a public outreach campaign, and focused support for districts with high absentee rates to improve daily attendance.

In 2025, Georgia legislators approved changes to school attendance policy prohibiting expulsions based solely on absenteeism. The new law also established additional reporting rules and supports programs that assist students in earning diplomas through different pathways.

As of 2026, Georgia’s student-to-teacher ratio was about 14:1, a rate below the national average of 15:1.