White students account for 36% of Westside Middle School enrollment for 2024-25

Westside Middle School had 286 white students on its roster for the 2024-25 school year, up 4.4% from the prior year, reports the Georgia Department of Education.

The school’s enrollment totaled 797 students in the 2024-25 period, with white students comprising 36%, making them the second-largest demographic at the school.

Westside Middle School is in the Barrow County School District, whose central office operates out of Winder.

Among the 16 schools in Barrow County, Winder-Barrow High School reported the most white students for the 2024-25 school year at 839.

The National Center for Education Statistics shows Georgia’s public school students consisted of approximately 36.4% Black, 35.9% white, 18.1% Hispanic, 4% Asian, 4.6% multiracial, 0.2% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.1% Pacific Islander.

Chronic absenteeism continued as a prominent challenge in Georgia schools in the post-pandemic period, with 20.7% of students missing 10% or more days in 2024, according to the Georgia Department of Education. Efforts to address this included GaDOE’s launch of a real-time attendance dashboard, awareness campaign, and targeted support for districts with the highest need to raise the rate of students present each day.

Georgia lawmakers passed legislation in 2025 revising attendance policy to prohibit expulsions solely for absence. Further, the law introduced additional reporting guidelines and supports alternate paths to graduation. For more details: Georgia lawmakers passed a bill updating school attendance laws to ban expulsion solely for absenteeism.

In 2026, Georgia’s student-to-teacher ratio averaged roughly 14:1, slightly lower than the national average of 15:1.