Opinion ID: 2509859
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: References to Special Schools in Georgia Statutory and Case Law

Text: The first references to special schools in Georgia law came during this period. References to special schools first appear in decisions by this Court about a century ago. These cases relied on the general legislation enacted in the first decade of the 1900s, which provided for a uniform system of laying out school districts within counties, to overturn special acts creating new municipal special school districts, in accordance with the constitutional rule that prohibits enactment of a special law where there is a general law on the same subject. See, e.g., Vaughn v. Simmons, 139 Ga. 210, 214-215, 76 S.E. 1004 (1913) (noting that [s]everal efforts have been made to create special school districts inconsistently with the general school law and invalidating a special act incorporating a portion of Pulaski County as the town of Mitchell's District with the sole municipal power of operating a school district); James v. City of Blakely, 143 Ga. 117, 84 S.E. 431 (1915) (invalidating a special law creating a special school district for the City of Blakely). In 1924 the Court of Appeals similarly referred to the local independent school system for the City of Abbeville as a special school system. Southern School Supply Co. v. Abbeville, 34 Ga.App. 93, 100, 128 S.E. 231 (1924). Two years later, the General Assembly enacted a statute, which continues in effect today, that used the term special school to refer to a school district established separate from a county school system. See Ga. L.1926, Ex.Sess., p. 40, § 1, now OCGA § 20-2-370 (providing that municipal school districts that operat[e] a system of public schools independent of the county school system may annul their special school law and become a part of the county school system using certain procedures). See also Upson County School Dist. v. City of Thomaston, 248 Ga. 98, 98, 101, 281 S.E.2d 537 (1981) (discussing a municipality operating an independent public school system that was seeking to annul its special school law under what is now OCGA § 20-2-370). In the same vein, in 1940 this Court referred to a county school system that had been created by local law in 1872 as an independent school system and as one of the series of special schools regulated and controlled by local laws, juxtaposing it with the general system of state-supported local schools. State Bd. of Education v. County Bd. of Ed., 190 Ga. 588, 593, 10 S.E.2d 369 (1940). Likewise, in 1955 the Court of Appeals referred to a law establishing an independent school system for the City of Ashburn as a special school law. Searcy v. State og Ga., 91 Ga. App. 603, 607, 86 S.E.2d 652 (1955). What is notable about all of these referencesby the General Assembly, the Justices of this Court, and the Judges of the Court of Appealsis that they all equate special schools to schools or school systems established separate from the statewide, county-based common school systems. Not once is there a suggestion that a special school is defined by its students or curriculum.