Academic Teams & Clubs

Speech & Debate

Category:: Academic Teams & Clubs
Season:: Labor Day through February, longer for national qualifiers

Speech and debate tournaments at participating high schools, and at some middle schools. Students argue assigned topics, deliver prepared speeches or perform interpretation pieces, judged round by round.

What Speech & Debate is

Competitive speaking. Debate events include Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, Policy and Congressional Debate.
Speech events include original oratory, informative speaking, extemporaneous speaking, impromptu and dramatic, humorous and duo interpretation.
Tournaments are usually Saturdays, sometimes Friday through Saturday, with some held online.
Many Georgia tournaments split entries by experience, so first- and second-year students compete against other newer students.

What Speech & Debate is not

Not a class grade, even if a school also offers a debate or speech class.
Not the same as Model UN, mock trial or student council.
Not one GCPS league. Schools choose which tournaments to enter.
Not only debate. Students who would rather perform or give speeches have a full set of events.

Who runs it

A teacher coach runs the team. In Georgia, the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association (GFCA) is the state governing body for speech and debate and runs the state championships. Schools join the GFCA for state eligibility. Many also join the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA), which splits Georgia into a northern and a southern district for national qualifying.

Season and calendar

The Georgia season traditionally runs from Labor Day to the end of February. GFCA holds a First & Second Year State Championship, Varsity State Championships in speech and debate, a Student Congress championship and an online supplemental speech championship. Varsity state is limited to the top students, and an entry must have attended at least two Georgia tournaments. NSDA district tournaments in winter send qualifiers to nationals. Confirm locally — the coach builds the tournament calendar.

How kids get on Speech & Debate

Ask whether the school has a team, a class, or both.
Ask whether the team does speech, debate, or both, and which events it coaches.
Ask how many Saturdays a typical student competes.
Ask about entry fees, NSDA membership and travel, and whether families are asked to judge. Schools must bring judges for their entries.
Ask whether beginners can join mid-year.

A teacher or school sponsor runs the group. Not every GCPS school offers this, and availability changes year to year — confirm at your child's school before you plan around it.

Who sponsors this at your child's school is a school question. Ask the front office, the counselor, or the teacher who runs the group. GCPS Insider does not keep a live sponsor list and cannot tell you who the coach is. Please do not email us to find a sponsor, meeting time, or roster.

Questions to ask the school

Does the school have a speech and debate team, and which events do you coach?
How often does a typical student compete, and on which days?
What do entry fees, memberships and travel cost, and who covers them?
Will parents be asked to judge, and is there training?
Is the team a GFCA or NSDA member, and how do students qualify for state or nationals?

Schools we have seen list Speech & Debate

This list is incomplete on purpose and is not a directory. We only list what we have actually seen a school publish, so a school missing here may still run the program — and a school listed here can drop it.

Still verifying. We have not published a speech and debate school list yet and we will not invent a count. Browse the schools directory and check a school's own page, and tell us what your school offers — that link is for adding a school, not for asking who the sponsor is.

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