The DeKalb County School District agreed to pay $29.5 million to seven charter schools that sued it for withholding funding, ending a fight that ran for years and cost the district nearly three times what the schools first said they were owed.
A judge ruled in 2022 that the district, the third-largest school system in Georgia, breached its contracts with the schools. The court found the district withheld state and federal funding, failed to meet minimum funding requirements, and improperly kept a portion of the schools' money as an administrative fee without providing administrative services in return. The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling in 2023.
The two sides had been due back in court this summer to determine how much the district owed. Instead they signed a settlement in June, before the trial began, and the DeKalb County Board of Education approved it at its June meeting. The schools had originally claimed more than $10 million was withheld. The final figure, $29.5 million, came from the settlement agreement obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
What each school will receive
The settlement assigns a specific amount to each of the seven plaintiffs. Every school links to its allk12 profile.
| Charter school | City | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| The Globe Academy | Atlanta | $5.99 million |
| DeKalb Agriculture Technology and Environment | Stone Mountain | $4.66 million |
| The Museum School of Avondale Estates | Avondale Estates | $4.07 million |
| DeKalb Preparatory Academy | Decatur | $4.01 million |
| DeKalb Path Academy | Brookhaven | $3.78 million |
| Leadership Preparatory Academy | Lithonia | $3.66 million |
| Tapestry Public Charter School | Doraville | $3.33 million |
The deal also changes how the district handles money going forward. It requires DeKalb to provide monthly wire sheets that show how it calculates each school's funding distribution, for as long as the schools stay open. That transparency requirement is aimed at the exact problem behind the case, since the dispute turned on the schools not being able to see how their share was set.
The reason any of this is possible is a point people often get wrong about charter schools. Charters are public schools, funded with public money, but they are run by private operators under a district's oversight. Georgia law requires districts to fund them no less favorably than their other schools, and that standard is what the schools argued DeKalb failed to meet. Our explainer on how charter schools differ from public schools lays out the arrangement in full.
The schools framed the outcome as a reset. The Museum School of Avondale Estates told families this week that it was "thrilled," and a joint message from the charters said they hope the settlement "marks a turning point" in their relationship with the district and that they believe in collaboration to serve students across the county. Interim Superintendent Norman Sauce III struck a similar note, saying in a statement that approving the deal lets the district "turn the page and move forward together" with a focus on students and families.
The charter schools first filed suit in 2020, and said the funding problems dated back to 2015. DeKalb has been in the news for other reasons lately too, including its rollout of 75 electric school buses paid for by a federal grant.
Sources
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: DeKalb school district agrees to pay $29.5 million to seven charter schools
School enrollment and district figures from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, 2024-25.
