Michelle Obama STEM Elementary Academy sees 99 Hispanic students enroll for 2024-25

For the 2024-25 school year, 99 Hispanic students attended Michelle Obama STEM Elementary Academy—an 8.3% decrease compared to the previous year, reports from the Georgia Department of Education indicate.

The school’s total enrollment stood at 993 students in 2024-25, with Hispanic students composing 10% of the population. This made them the second-largest demographic at the school.

Located within the Clayton County School District, Michelle Obama STEM Elementary Academy is overseen from the district’s main office in Jonesboro.

Within the district’s 65 schools, Forest Park High School had the largest number of Hispanic students enrolled for 2024-25, at 882.

Georgia’s public schools enrolled over 1.7 million students, according to the Fiscal Year 2026-1 report from the Georgia Department of Education. The largest enrollment was in elementary grades with 787,206 students (45.9%), followed by high school at 539,092 students (31.4%), and middle school at 388,733 (22.7%).

Chronic absenteeism continues to challenge Georgia schools after the pandemic, with 20.7% of students missing 10% or more school days in 2024, according to the Georgia Department of Education. To address this, the GaDOE implemented a statewide initiative featuring a real-time attendance dashboard, a public awareness campaign, and targeted support for districts with the greatest need to improve student attendance.

In 2025, state lawmakers updated school attendance laws to prohibit expulsions solely based on absenteeism. The statute also introduced expanded reporting requirements and coordinated with programs offering alternate pathways for earning diplomas.

Georgia’s average student-to-teacher ratio was about 14:1 as of 2026, according to state data. This surpasses the national average of 15:1.