Over the past year, there has been a pattern of Cobb County School District (CCSD) and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale arguing that increased multifamily housing in Cobb County is fueling student transiency and disrupting education. Superintendent Ragsdale made these claims most prominently In May of 2024 during last year’s Demographic Study Update. Concerns about transience also come up whenever the Board of Commissioners attempts to make any progress on transit or missing middle housing like ADUs (backyard cottages).

Keeping up with this trend, last week on May 15th CCSD put out a District Demographic Study Update, along with an op-ed on the school webpage, claiming that multi-family developments are increasing “transiency” within the school district.

It’s shameful that we even have to make this post, but we are here to tell you the data tells a different story.

Our Policy team took a look at the data Cobb County Schools shared, the original data they used, and reviewed other sources. We found that new multi-family apartments do not correlate with a significant rise in student transiency. Our focus should instead be on mitigating factors that lead to families making the difficult choice to move their children to another community, like housing costs. In this article, we’ll discuss methods to address these real issues impacting families of all shapes and sizes.

Here are some highlights from our research:

  • Student transiency, measured by Student Mobility Rate, has remained relatively steady over the past 13 years in Cobb County.
  • The volume of Multi-Family Apartments being built has decreased, as measured by both Census American Community Surveys (ACS) and building permit data from the Office of Policy Development and Research, a part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  • In contrast, the overall volume of new housing being built has decreased, leading to household budgetary pressures from increased housing costs.
  • Cobb County is growing at a slower pace than previous decades, as measured in population and student enrollment.
  • Even with the projected continued growth of the county, Cobb County’s system-wide enrollment in Elementary schools is projected to decrease.
  • Cobb County School District is unable to show any connection between the building of new apartments and their impact on schools.
  • Research concludes that housing instability, caused by higher rent and home prices, is the primary driver of student transiency.
  • We recommend a wide range of policy and collaborative solutions to directly address housing instability and student transiency.

Measuring Transiency

Transiency, as the District Demographic Study points out, is a valid concern to have for school districts. Research consistently shows that children who change schools frequently have lower test scores and higher drop-out rates. Simply put, the more students move around between schools before completing a school year, the more difficulty they have learning.

This is the main argument Cobb County schools is trying to claim, yet they never show any evidence that there is an increasing rate of transiency in our schools.

Luckily, the data measuring transiency actually exists. The rate of transiency is officially known as the “Student Mobility Rate“, and in Georgia every school district has their mobility rate published by The Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. More specifically the Student mobility rate refers to the percentage of students who enter or withdraw from a school during the year.

Since 2013, Cobb’s Student Mobility Rate has remained relatively steady, close to the state average, and better than many other counties in the metro Atlanta area.

Multi-Family Housing’s Impact on Student Performance

Despite Superintendent Ragsdale and CCSD’s claims that the Cobb County Board of Commissioners “alarming rate” of apartment approval is causing more transiency, the data doesn’t back up this claim. Cobb’s mobility rate is lower than it was 13 years ago despite a purported “alarming rate” of multifamily housing unit permits in the last few years.

Cobb’s Student Mobility Rate is Average – and Steady

According to the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement data, Cobb’s mobility rate has hovered in the mid-teens (as a percentage) for over a decade. In 2012, Cobb’s rate was 16.2%, and in 2024 it was 14.3%. In fact, 2024’s 14.3% mobility rate is only 0.8% higher than the Georgia state average (~13.5%).

Student mobility rates for Cobb County vs. neighboring counties, 2012–2024. Cobb’s rate (red line) has remained around 14–16%, near the Georgia state average (~14%), and has not spiked despite growth in multifamily housing.

Notably, Cobb’s mobility rate did not surge during the 2010s when many multifamily units were built. On the contrary, it gently decreased from around 16% to ~14%. Even after a brief dip in 2020–21 (likely due to pandemic disruptions), Cobb’s 2024 mobility (14.3%) remains in line with its historical range.

To use neighboring Metro Atlanta counties for context: Cherokee County had a 10.6% mobility rate in 2024. On the other hand, DeKalb County saw a 25.1% mobility rate, much higher than Cobb’s. Fulton and Gwinnett – large counties with diverse housing – were in the upper-teens (around 18%) in 2024. Cobb sits squarely in the middle when compared to all Georgia school systems, both in absolute percentage and trend.

Graduation Rates Remain Strong and Have Improved for Every School Over the Last Decade

During the CCSD work session on May 15th, Superintendent Ragsdale pointed to Osborne High School’s graduation rate being lower than the rest of the County, and said transiency was playing a role. Not only is Cobb County not experiencing concerning levels of transiency, graduation rates are also up for every single High School in CCSD.

This includes Osborne High School, which has improved their graduation rate from 43% to 77% since 2010, a 34% increase.

Source: The Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement

Osborne High School’s mobility rate has also decreased from 32.7% to 20% since 2012, a near 13% decrease. We should be celebrating their improved performance, not attacking the school and the community that goes there.

Source: The Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement


The County Is Deceptive in Their Presentation of Multifamily Housing Data

Cobb County Schools’ 2024 & 2025 presentation highlights a purported “nearly 100%” (32% to 61%, an absolute increase of 29%. A relative increase of “nearly 100%”) rise in multifamily housing permits and share of total housing. However, a closer look at their own data source reveals that this trend line was deliberately anchored in 2008 – at the height of the financial crisis and recession – and cherry-picked 2013 and 2018 as trend lines, making 2023 appear as part of a sustained upswing.

Source: Cobb County School Board 2024 Demographics Study Update

In reality, the proportion of multifamily unit permits has fluctuated since 2008, primarily because single-family unit permits plunged and never fully recovered. When viewed against the historical record dating back to 1980, the volume and share of multifamily units built in recent years are modest, and 2020-2023 shows little deviation from long-term patterns. This broader context underscores that current permitting levels are not unprecedented – and certainly not the product of a sudden policy shift under today’s commissioners as the Superintendent has repeatedly claimed.

Source: HUD State of the Cities Data Systems (SOCDS) – Building Permits

Cobb is Actually Building Less Housing Today

Looking at the American Community Survey (ACS) data that the US Census Bureau provides and further analyzed in the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Cobb Housing Assessment, we found that new housing construction in Cobb is at its lowest pace in decades. Only 5.6% of Cobb’s current housing units were built in the 2010s, compared to 13.6% in the 2000s and 29.8% in the 1980s & 1990s. In fact, as of 2023, a mere 0.67% of Cobb’s housing stock was built 2020 or later. In other words, Cobb is actually building fewer homes now than in past generations – hardly an out-of-control construction boom.

This includes renter-occupied housing units, which we are building at around 300 units per year, a significant decrease from previous decades.

What has changed recently is what type of housing gets built: a larger share of new units are multifamily, since the county’s remaining undeveloped land is limited and market demand is shifting. The district sees the raw number of apartment permits and cries foul, but in context Cobb is facing a housing supply slowdown, not a runaway explosion.

Census ACS Data – S2504 | Physical Housing Characteristics for Occupied Housing Units

In short, there is no evidence of a transiency “crisis” in Cobb – nothing in the data shows that adding apartments has caused an unusual uptick in student turnover.

It should be noted that the majority of apartments being built today are targeted for seniors (55+) or young professionals and the impact on our schools is minimal. Every new development project gets reviewed and the impact on schools is always considered with Cobb County Schools having a chance to respond and weigh in, as noted in this East Cobb News Editorial:

As for his complaints about his representatives being ignored at zoning meetings, well, I haven’t heard them say much of anything for months. School impacts are included in every residential case analyzed by the Cobb zoning staff.

Are Cobb school officials not being invited to speak, or have they just given up? Are they being dispatched to the meetings at all? The superintendent wasn’t clear about that.

The Truth about High Student Mobility Rates

In reality it’s not the type of housing that increases student mobility, but rather housing instability. A significant portion of the country is going through a housing affordability crisis in recent years, and Cobb County is no different. Over the past decade we have slowed down the amount of housing we’re building, which includes single family homes and multi family developments.

This slow housing growth, combined with steady population increases, has created a housing squeeze. Home prices and rents have surged as a result of demand outpacing supply. Notably, the number of affordable rentals in Cobb has plummeted. In 2015, nearly half of rental units in Cobb County cost under $1,000 per month; by 2020, that share fell to just 20%. Such a sharp decline in affordable housing availability is alarming.

Housing prices can also be measured in median rental prices and median household prices, both of which are showing significant increases in the last 10 years.

According to the ARC Housing Assessment for Cobb County, the “typical home value” for Cobb County increased from $213,948 in January 2016 to $403,855 in March 2023. The Observed Rent Index went from $1,150/month in January 2016 to $1,907/month in March 2023.

High housing costs and lack of affordable options are a known recipe for residential instability: families struggling with rent are more likely to face evictions or be forced to move in search of cheaper housing. Indeed, the National League of Cities reports that “one of the leading causes of student mobility is residential relocation,” especially in low-income communities, “due largely to… a shortage of affordable housing”. In plain terms, when families can’t find stable, affordable homes, they are far more likely to move around – and their children’s schooling is disrupted.

These facts point to a critical flip side of the district’s argument: Multifamily housing is not the enemy; it can be part of the solution. Apartments and other moderately priced housing types tend to be more affordable than large lot single-family homes. They can provide stable homes for families who can’t afford a $400,000 house in East Cobb. If Cobb County were to slam the brakes on multifamily development (as some school officials seemingly desire), the likely outcome would be even higher housing costs and fewer options, potentially forcing more families to move out or live in sub-optimal conditions.

Paradoxically, restricting housing could increase student transiency by pricing families out of the community.

Housing Stability is Key to Stable Schools

Research overwhelmingly shows that housing stability and affordability are essential for children’s educational success. When families have stable housing, children are much more likely to remain in the same school and thrive. Conversely, housing instability – frequent moves, evictions, homelessness – is devastating to student outcomes.

Stability matters. One study following students over 25 years found that those who moved schools multiple times were significantly less likely to graduate on time and more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems. But importantly, that study also found that the negative effects of school mobility predicted “above and beyond” other risk factors like family poverty and residential instability.

In other words, children who move a lot often come from families facing economic hardships – it’s the context that leads to both mobility and lower achievement. This means if we address the root causes, such as unaffordable housing, we can reduce mobility rates and its harmful effects.

Instead of demonizing apartments as the cause of housing instability, we need to engage in solutions that create housing stability for all Cobb residents, especially our students.

A Strong Towns Vision: Integrating Housing, Community, and Schools

Unfortunately, there’s a pervasive mindset that views renters as a “transient and unsavory” element that must be zoned out in favor of exclusively owner-occupied, single-family neighborhoods.

This attitude – “anything too small or too inexpensive will attract the poor and undesirable” – has dominated zoning for decades, leading communities to discourage (or even ban) apartments, duplexes, or any “missing middle” housing. The result? Sprawling cities with high housing costs and a lack of diverse housing options.

But how can Cobb County address housing stability in a way that strengthens schools and neighborhoods?

We have to make a commitment to strive for housing stability for all forms of housing, both rental and owner occupied. Rather than fearing renters, Cobb should recognize that today’s renters can be long-term community members – if we let them.

A big part of addressing housing stability is going to involve addressing high housing costs. As we start to build more housing and give people more housing options, costs will start to go down.

This process will involve enacting zoning reforms to encourage and allow for “missing middle” housing like duplexes, backyard cottages, townhomes, triplexes, guest-room-to-apartment conversions, multiplexes, etc that can be owner-occupied with long-term rentals. Cobb’s zoning currently favors single-family homes in the vast majority of areas, with multifamily restricted to certain narrow corridors – often alongside the interstate and highways. Easing these restrictions to allow missing middle housing within existing neighborhoods would gently increase the housing supply and provide more affordable choices, while also allowing families to stay closer together as they age.

School location and neighborhood design are also essential for stability. Schools and neighborhoods should be designed in a way that will reduce costs of living such as transportation. By encouraging the development of mixed used neighborhoods with access to efficient transit and safe infrastructure for biking and walking, parents and students are more engaged in their community, and the school truly becomes a community hub. When schools are part of the neighborhood fabric, there’s mutual reinforcement of stability and families have an extra incentive to stay because they feel connected to a place, not just a school system.

Finally, collaboration between the school district and local governments is crucial. The current antagonistic tone from CCSD helps no one and only serves to create more division. As our housing stock increases, CCSD should work with the Board of Commissioners to propose meaningful policy solutions like adjusting attendance zones to utilize schools with available capacity, or negotiating developer contributions for school infrastructure. Positive change requires collaboration, not bickering.

Policy Recommendations for Stability and Strong Communities

Drawing on the evidence and perspectives above, here are concrete, locally relevant policy recommendations for Cobb County that would foster a more resilient county for all and improve both housing stability and school outcomes:

  • Update Zoning to Allow Diverse Housing Types
  • Encourage Affordable Housing, Expand Programs for Rental Assistance and Eviction Prevention
  • Creating and Investing in Walkable & Bikeable Mixed-Use Neighborhoods
  • Plan Growth Collaboratively with other Local Governments

In summary, Cobb County can embrace growth and change in a way that benefits both schools and families. Cobb’s student mobility rates are average and stable, and where mobility challenges do exist, they are rooted in housing affordability and stability issues that can be addressed through better policy.

By focusing on inclusive zoning, walkable neighborhoods, and housing affordability – Cobb can ensure that families of all incomes can find stable homes and keep their kids in the same schools year after year. Rather than fearing apartments, we should harness good development as a tool: more housing diversity can mean more stable, long-term residents, which ultimately means stronger schools and a stronger community for Cobb County.

References:

Local Mobility Data (Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement):

Cobb County Housing Data (Census American Community Survey – ACS):

Research on Housing Stability & School Mobility:

Strong Towns Articles & Insights:

Additional Background and Local Context: