South Effingham Elementary School

South Effingham Elementary School is one of the middle-of-the-pack elementary schools in Guyton, Georgia, overseen by Effingham County, with 863 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 43% larger than the state mean of about 605.

Effingham County comprises 13 schools with combined enrollment of 14,560 students; South Effingham Elementary School is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, South Effingham Elementary School reports that White students make up the majority at 60%. Beyond that, the school reports 14% Hispanic, 13% Black, 6% Asian, 6% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 75% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 64 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.5:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 13.3:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 33% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is below Effingham County's rate of about 49%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), South Effingham Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 60.1%, the actual is 67.6%, a residual of +7.5 points.

Zooming out to the county, Effingham County reports that the typical household earns roughly $88,438 per year, roughly 27% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Effingham County's 13 public schools (combined enrollment of about 14,560 students), South Effingham Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

South Effingham High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 3.5 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 5 other public schools cluster around South Effingham Elementary School. On composite proficiency, South Effingham Elementary School comes 1st of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 45.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a commuter-belt area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count held roughly steady: 842 students in 2018 compared to 863 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 75% to 60%. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 16.9:1 in 2018 to 13.5:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the South Effingham Elementary School community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.