Buford City Schools is the top school district in Georgia according to Niche, a website for researching public and private K-12 schools. The site's list of 2017 Best School Districts for Georgia also includes six others in metro Atlanta.

No Georgia district, however, made Niche’s list of the best 100 districts in the nation.

Decatur city’s school system took the No. 2 spot on Niche’s Georgia list, and Forsyth County was fourth. Also in the top 10 were Fayette County, 6; Cobb County, 8; Gwinnett County, 9; and Cherokee County, 10.

Academics carried the most weight in Niche’s scoring, gauged by factors such as state test scores, college readiness, graduation rates, and SAT and ACT scores. Other factors included culture and diversity, health and safety, and parents’ and students’ evaluation of their district on surveys.

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A longtime Cobb County pastor, the Rev. Dr. Nelson Price, died Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, as first reported by the Marietta Daily Journal. (Courtesy of Mayes Ward Dobbins Funeral Home)

Credit: Nelson Price website

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An aerial view captures a large area under construction for a new data center campus on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Developed by QTS, the data center campus near Fayetteville is one of the largest under construction in Georgia. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez