NCES CCD 2024-25 10 schools GA

Best-Resourced Schools in Waycross, GA

Compiled from official source data by .

10 public K-12 schools in Waycross from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
10
Schools
5,927
Students
46.8/100
Avg Resource Index
13.2:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Waycross has more public-school enrollment than 63% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Waycross sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

5 of Waycross's 10 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 2 middle and 1 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Economic need crosses separate district systems

88.2% of enrollment in reporting Waycross schools is eligible for free lunch, while the city list spans 2 districts. That pairing makes a citywide average especially easy to misread: the need measure follows students, but staffing decisions, calendars, program rules, and federal allocations are administered through separate district structures. The 34-point gap between Waycross Regional Youth Detention Center and Wacona Elementary School shows how much reported resource capacity can vary inside the same municipal label. Compare schools within the same district first, then use the city view to see how those local systems differ.

City enrollment
Top 37%
School count
Top 41%
Resource Index average
77th percentile
Teacher staffing
77th percentile

Ware County High School accounts for 27.6% of all Waycross public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Waycross-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Waycross school enrollment varies 233× across entities

Waycross school enrollment ranges from 7 students (lowest) to 1,633 students (highest), a spread of 1,626 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Waycross reports 88.2% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share is above 87.5%, so economic need is widespread across the measured student population. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Waycross student-teacher ratio is 13.2:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Waycross Regional Youth Detention Center 64
2. Ruskin Elementary School 55
3. Waycross Middle School 48
4. Williams Heights Elementary School 48
5. Memorial Drive Elementary School 48
6. Ware County Middle School 46
7. Center Elementary School 46
8. Waresboro Elementary School 43
9. Ware County High School 40
10. Wacona Elementary School 30

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Waycross

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Ruskin Elementary School 67.2/100
  2. 2 Ware County High School 63.7/100
  3. 3 Memorial Drive Elementary School 63.1/100
  4. 4 Waycross Middle School 62.3/100
  5. 5 Ware County Middle School 62.2/100

What do families ask about schools in Waycross?

Which Waycross school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Waycross Regional Youth Detention Center has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Waycross schools in this federal-data comparison at 64/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Waycross, GA? ▼

Waycross has 10 public schools with a total enrollment of 5,927 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 13.2:1.

Other Cities in Georgia

Atlanta
137 schools
Marietta
60 schools
Columbus
49 schools
Savannah
48 schools
Augusta
42 schools
Decatur
41 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Georgia →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.