Data Requests & Contact

July 16, 2025 – Superintendents

Below are your weekly updates and reminders from the Georgia Department of Education. Click here for the District Deadlines and To-Dos Dashboard.

Introducing Academic Career Pathways

GaDOE is launching new Academic Career Pathways – 21 new hybrid pathways that offer a blend of existing academic and CTAE courses. Aligned to Georgia’s High Demand Career List, the new pathways recognize the strong link between higher academic learning and hands-on CTAE application.

The Academic Career Pathways do not replace CTAE Pathways, Academic Pathways, or Advanced Academic Pathways. Students can choose the option that best meets their individual needs and goals. The new pathways are available immediately for the 2025-2026 school year.

Introducing the Construction for Geometry Initiative

Beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, students can fulfill the Geometry mathematics graduation requirement by successfully completing and passing all the courses in the Carpentry Pathway within the Construction Career Cluster. This fulfillment meets the admission requirements for Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) institutions.

The Carpentry Pathway includes skills and competencies that apply key Geometry concepts. To further support Construction teachers, GaDOE has developed model lessons that highlight and emphasize Geometry concepts in a carpentry setting. Information on these model lessons will be shared with district CTAE Directors.

Reminder: Submit Your Count of First-Year Teachers by July 23

As part of our Teach in the Peach teacher recruitment and retention campaign, GaDOE would like to send a small welcome package to first-year teachers in your district – including a letter, Teach in the Peach brochure, pen, button, and stickers. These packages will be mailed directly to you for local distribution and are intentionally light and easy to store.

To help us plan, please share a rough estimate of how many teachers in your district will be in their first year teaching in any district this school year. An exact count is not necessary – a general estimate will be sufficient – but we do need an estimate from every LEA.

Thank you for helping us welcome and celebrate the newest members of Georgia’s education family!

WNBA Atlanta Dream Education Night

The Georgia Teacher of the Year program is proud to partner with the Atlanta Dream to celebrate the outstanding educators who make a difference in the lives of students across our state. Through this exciting collaboration, educators can enjoy specially discounted tickets to select Atlanta Dream games throughout the summer. We’re especially looking forward to an Education Celebration Night on September 5, where we’ll honor exceptional educators from across Georgia – including our 2026 Georgia Teacher of the Year Finalists. Please consider sharing this information with teachers in your school.

2025 Cohort Withdrawal Update and Summer Graduate Collection Applications Available in Portal

The 2025 Cohort Withdrawal Update (CWU) and the 2025 Summer Graduate Collection (SG) applications are now available in the MyGaDOE Portal. Both applications must be completed with superintendent signoff by 4 p.m. on August 28 and are critical to ensuring accurate school and district graduation rates.

The CWU application allows districts and/or high schools to make needed withdrawal reason corrections (with appropriate documentation on file) for students in the 2025 cohort. The SG application, available to district staff only, allows the district to provide graduation information for 12th grade students not in the 2025 cohort who were reported with no withdrawal code or were reported as graduated with a Certificate of Attendance or a Special Education diploma in Student Record and graduated with a “G” (General) or “L” (Alternate) diploma between 5/15/25 and 8/15/25.

Contact the GaDOE accountability specialist assigned to assist your district with questions regarding the applications.

New Requirements for AEDs for the 2025-2026 School Year

HB 874, passed in the 2004 legislative session, updated the code regarding Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) usage and availability in schools. Effective for the coming school year, each K-12 school is required to:

  • Have at least one functional AED on site.
  • Develop an internal response team.
  • Establish a written emergency plan.
  • Conduct a minimum of two AED drills per year.
  • Inform all school personnel of the location of AED(s).

SB 351 Webinar – Safeguarding Georgia’s Students and Strengthening Schools

Join us July 29 at 10 a.m. or July 30 at 2 p.m. for a free, informative webinar designed for education leaders and staff across Georgia. With the “Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act” (SB 351) now in effect, this 30-minute session will walk you through how to access and implement free tools and resources through our partnership with Parent ProTech.