Enjoy the commute Tuesday.
Metro Atlanta’s more than 800,000 students begin returning to school the next day, and traffic will begin returning to normal as their parents get back to work.
It’ll start first in the outer suburbs. Nearly 90,000 students go back Wednesday, all of them in school districts outside the Interstate 285 “Perimeter” loop.
Then, Thursday, more more than 400,000 additional students return -- nearly 180,000 of them in Georgia’s biggest school district, Gwinnett County Public Schools, and another 112,000 in the Cobb County School District, the next largest.
Both are just outside the Perimeter, but also returning Thursday is the DeKalb County School District, the state’s third largest with 100,000 students. It straddles the eastern half of the Perimeter, where “Spaghetti Junction” at I-85 to and from Gwinnett is a typical source of slow-downs.
Friday will be more of the same. Then, on Monday, Atlanta will be back in full force to defend its reputation as one of the worst U.S. regions for traffic. The rest of the metro core -- Atlanta Public Schools, Clayton County Public Schools and Fulton County Schools, all at least partly within the Perimeter -- will add another 200,000 students.
Finally, Henry County southeast of the Perimeter comes back the next day, Jan. 9, adding its 42,000 students.
Go to myAJC.com/education, the subscriber website of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for in-depth reporting on education...
...Related: by the district -- when schools reopen after the New Year:
Atlanta City: Jan. 8
Buford City: Jan. 3
Cherokee County:Jan. 8
Clayton County: Jan. 8
Cobb County: Jan. 4
Coweta County: Jan. 4
Decatur City: Jan. 4
DeKalb County: Jan. 4
Douglas County: Jan. 3
Fayette County: Jan. 3
Forsyth County: Jan. 8
Fulton County: Jan. 8
Gwinnett County: Jan. 4
Henry County: Jan. 9
Marietta City: Jan. 4
Newton County: Jan. 3
Rockdale County: Jan. 3
...The AJC's Ty Tagami keeps you updated on the latest in Georgia education. Follow real journalism with real local impact by subscribing to myAJC.com.
