The Social Circle Academy was incorporated on December 22, 1828, and students were enrolled between the ages of 8-16 in grades 1-8. The founders of Social Circle believed education to be such an important part of the community that it was provided for in the original city charter. In 1832, Samuel Catlin, one of the charter Commissioners of the settlement, deeded five acres of land in two parcels to the trustees of the school system for the purpose of building an academy with separate facilities for males and females. The Social Circle City School System was chartered in 1905 by the Georgia General Assembly, and today the school system consists of an elementary school and a middle/high school.
Social Circle Elementary is located east of Georgia Highway 11 near the previous girls' section of the academy. The present Social Circle Elementary School physical plant was built in 1958. Prior to this time, white children were being educated at Social Circle Academy, and later by the Social Circle City Schools. Black children were being taught at local black churches which continued to play a major role in the education of black children for many years after the turn of the century. In 1923, a school for black children was established in a house on Dogwood Street, not far from the present elementary school site. As attendance grew, it soon became evident that the school needed a larger facility. The city set aside part of the black cemetary property on Fairplay Drive for this new school, the Social Circle Training Center. In 1935, a march took place to celebrate the move of the school on Dogwood Street to the current campus site on Fairplay Drive. The Social Circle Training School educated black children in Social Circle through the eleventh grade until 1958, when Carver High School in Monroe was built for all of the county's black children to attend from grades 9-12. During this same year, the county also completed construction of a school through the twelfth grade at the present Middle/High School campus for white children living in Social Circle. The Social Circle Training School continued to educate the black children of Social Circle through the eighth grade until well into the next decade. The Federal Courts desegregated the Social Circle City Schools and Walton County Schools in 1968, providing for the Social Circle Training School to become part of the Social Circle City Schools as the Social Circle Elementary School.
The district served by Social Circle City Schools today includes the city of Social Circle, the town of Jersey, and the area surrounding these towns included in the 1968 Federal Court desegregation order under which the school system still operates. The school system draws some 1,300 students from the homes in the attendance district.