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Fort Gaines, Georgia - 2 schools
An equity score of 84/100 ranks Clay County #3 of 216 districts in Georgia (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $30,025 per pupil, Clay County ranks #1 of 219 Georgia districts by per-pupil spending (Georgia districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
200
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$30,025
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Clay County operates 2 public schools serving 200 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Georgia. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Clay County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $30,025 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 22 of 219 Georgia districts by per-pupil spending. See how Georgia compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 35.6% local, 31.0% state, and 33.4% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 84/100, ranked #3 of 216 in Georgia against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 182.2:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 37.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 95.8% African American, 3.5% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Clay County Elementary, enrolling 143 students (75% of the district's total enrollment).
Clay County Elementary accounts for 71.5% of all Clay County student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Clay County a distant remainder — means Clay County-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Clay County has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 100.0% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Clay County student-counselor ratio is 182:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Clay County chronic absenteeism rate is 37.0% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.