After an Atlanta teen completed in-patient psychiatric treatment, his school required him to "transition" through a psychoeducational program, part of the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support, or GNETS.

The South Metro GNETS program, in Forest Park, was a place of continual screaming in the halls and an almost total lack of academic instruction, the teen’s mother said. Her son – like all his classmates at South Metro – is black. In fact, although 20 percent of Atlanta Public Schools students are white or Hispanic, every Atlanta student assigned to GNETS is black.

Click here to see a breakdown, by school, of the Atlanta students enrolled in GNETS.

“It’s like the ghetto,” the mother said.

Schools across the state send a disproportionate number of black students to GNETS programs, segregating them by disability and race, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found.

Read the AJC's complete investigation here.

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Ceudy Gutierrez reads a book to her 2-year-old son, Matias, at their home in Buford, GA, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. Ceudy Gutierrez is struggling to make ends meet for herself and her three young kids following her husband’s ICE arrest earlier this fall. (Miguel Martinez/ AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez