Barrow County Schools Calendar 2026–2027

Barrow County Schools combines two address-based high-school communities with a third secondary school that works differently. Most of the district’s 14,809 K–12 students follow either the Apalachee High or Winder-Barrow High cluster through assigned elementary and middle schools. Those two clusters form the ordinary attendance map.

Barrow Arts and Sciences Academy does not function as a third neighborhood high-school zone. BASA enrolls students through a countywide application process and offers a distinct academic model, so an address that belongs to Apalachee or Winder-Barrow remains the family’s guaranteed base assignment unless the student is admitted to and chooses the academy. Sims Academy of Innovation and Technology and other specialized settings add career or alternative programming without creating more conventional feeder clusters.

This distinction matters because the state school list can make Barrow appear to have several interchangeable high schools. The district’s high schools serve different assignment and program roles. The useful sequence is to identify the resident cluster first, then examine whether the student is applying to BASA or using a specialized program site. Cluster assignment, program admission and transportation are separate decisions even when all of the institutions are operated by the same district.