DeKalb Leads The Way On Early Learning In Georgia

Nationally, the majority of kids who enter kindergarten aren’t ready.

The DeKalb County School District wants to change that. So, it’s doing something rare. It’s offering school to children as young as 3 years old.

The Setup

The DeKalb Early Learning Center, or ELC, is in the old Terry Mill Elementary School near Fayetteville and Terry Mill roads in unincorporated DeKalb. It’s the only public school in the state that teaches 3- and 4-year-olds. It opened for the 2018-19 school year with its first class of 3-year-olds. This year, it added 4-year-old pre-kindergarten.