GCPS Insider — Gwinnett County Public Schools parent news, Georgia

Bethesda Elementary School

Zoned GCPS elementary school in Lawrenceville — seats are assigned by home address in the Bethesda attendance zone of the Berkmar cluster; its Spanish Dual Language Immersion classes fill by GCPS application.

  • Grades: K–5
  • How to get in: Zoned by home address (DLI by application)
  • Cluster: Berkmar
  • Area: Lawrenceville
  • Student mix: 38.9 / 100

Bethesda Elementary is a zoned elementary school in the Berkmar cluster; students go on to Sweetwater Middle School, then Berkmar High School. It runs a Spanish Dual Language Immersion program in grades K–5, and all students take a Spanish special. Visit and ask questions before treating any ranking or reputation claim as a fit guarantee.

525 Bethesda School Road, Lawrenceville, GA 30044

Official starting points

  • School site: bethesdaes.gcpsk12.org
  • Zoning: GCPS Berkmar cluster page and GCPS permissive transfers
  • GCPS school profile: gcpsk12.org › School Profiles › Bethesda Elementary School
  • State data: GaDOE CCRPI at ccrpi.gadoe.org and GOSA Georgia School Grades Report

GCPS district:678-301-6000 (main)678-301-7085 (Planning, attendance boundaries)Find My School

What this school is

  • Spanish Dual Language Immersion (DLI) — a cohort, not schoolwide. DLI students spend half the day learning in Spanish and half in English, entering in kindergarten and continuing each year. Other students follow the regular English program (GCPS DLI page). GCPS lists Sweetwater Middle School (a feeder middle school for this zone) among the middle schools offering DLI continuation (GCPS DLI news).
  • Spanish special for all students — non-DLI students also take Spanish specials (GCPS school profile).
  • Clubs — more than 15, including Chorus, Programming, STEM, Color Guard, Dance, Robotics, Drama and a drone club (GCPS school profile).
  • Parent Center — English classes for multilingual families and parent workshops. Play 2 Learn — a GCPS parent-and-child class for families with children from birth to age 5, held at the school (GCPS school profile).
  • Gifted (FOCUS) — GCPS elementary gifted services for students who qualify; each school chooses the settings (resource, cluster, advanced content) (GCPS FOCUS page). Ask how FOCUS is delivered here.

Test scores and state ratings are not reproduced here — check GaDOE CCRPI and GOSA directly. Rankings: Not publicly available in this guide.

Principal

Katrina L. Larmond

School details

Address
525 Bethesda School Road, Lawrenceville, GA 30044
  • School hours: 8:15 AM – 2:45 PM
  • Source: School site; GCPS directory and school profile. Hours: GCPS directory; the school site lists the same student hours.

How families get in

Type: Zoned GCPS elementary school — assigned by home address (not a lottery or application school), with DLI seats filled by application.

  • Next step (GCPS Berkmar cluster page): Sweetwater Middle School. Confirm your address with GCPS before buying or renting for a school.
  • DLI seats: families of rising kindergartners apply through GCPS’s DLI application, and seats are filled by lottery. GCPS says DLI schools may consider transfers if slots are not filled by zoned students and families provide transportation — application windows change, so check the GCPS DLI page.
  • Living elsewhere in Gwinnett: a permissive transfer is possible only if the school is on GCPS’s current transfer list. Approvals are capacity-based and must be renewed each year — see GCPS permissive transfers.
  • Admit rate: Not applicable (zoned school); DLI lottery odds: Not publicly available.

Never treat social media dates as official.

Who it tends to fit

A good match when

  • You live in the Bethesda zone and want your child to move on to Sweetwater Middle School with neighborhood classmates.
  • You want your kindergartner to apply for Spanish DLI.
  • You want every child to get some Spanish even outside DLI.

Think twice when

  • You want DLI for an older child — GCPS describes DLI as starting in kindergarten; ask whether later entry is possible.
  • You live outside the zone and need a guaranteed transfer seat.

Students

Race/ethnicity mix (GaDOE FTE enrollment count; approximate percentages, not a ranking):

  • Hispanic ≈ 76% · Black ≈ 15% · Asian ≈ 9% · hidden by GaDOE (small counts): White, Two or more, plus other very small groups
  • Total enrollment about 1,100 students (GCPS directory, rounded)
  • Student mix score: 38.9 out of 100 (Gwinnett County overall: 72.9) — the chance that two randomly chosen students are from different racial/ethnic groups; 0 = all one group, higher = more mixed. This guide’s own calculation, 100 × (1 − Σ group share²), from GaDOE enrollment counts — not an official GCPS or state rating, and it does not reflect income or education. Several groups are hidden in the GaDOE report for this school, so treat the score as approximate.

Source: Georgia Department of Education, FTE Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity and Gender. Percentages are rounded and may not total 100. For official Georgia accountability, use GaDOE CCRPI and the GOSA School Grades Report.

Location and daily life

Bethesda School Road in Lawrenceville. GCPS buses serve students who live in the attendance zone; stop and time details are listed in ParentVUE (GCPS Transportation). DLI transfer families provide their own transportation. Families attending through a permissive transfer are responsible for arranging transportation. GCPS does not provide regular transportation for permissive transfers.

Compare before you commit

Questions to ask on a tour

  1. 1.How is gifted (FOCUS) service delivered here — resource classes, cluster classes or advanced content?
  2. 2.Which specials (art, music, PE, STEM, computer science, languages) does each grade rotate through?
  3. 3.How does the school help a child who needs extra support in reading or math?
  4. 4.Which before- and after-school care options operate on campus or offer pickup from the school?
  5. 5.How does the school communicate with families (ParentVUE, ParentSquare, newsletters)?

What to do next

  1. 1.Confirm your address is zoned for Bethesda Elementary School using the GCPS cluster pages.
  2. 2.Check GaDOE CCRPI and the GOSA School Grades Report for official school data.
  3. 3.Tour the school and ask about the programs that matter to your child.
  4. 4.Register through GCPS Online Registration.