Families in Snellville's Shiloh Cluster have a new option for early learning this fall. Gwinnett County and Gwinnett County Public Schools officially cut the ribbon on the Joyful Learning Academy, a full-time pre-K and preschool center built inside the Gwinnett Community Resource Center at 3025 Bethany Church Road — with capacity for more than 90 children.
What the academy offers
The academy runs preschool classes for 3-year-olds and Pre-K classes for 4-year-olds, full-time from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., following the GCPS school calendar. There's no bus service — this is a drop-off, in-person program — and it's built specifically to feed into the Shiloh Cluster: Anderson-Livsey, Annistown, Centerville, Partee, and Shiloh elementary schools, plus Shiloh Middle and Shiloh High.
"Every child deserves the opportunity to start school confident, curious and ready to learn," said Nicole Love Hendrickson, Chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, in the county's announcement of the ribbon-cutting.
One roof, more than a classroom
What makes the academy notable isn't just the seat count — it's where it lives. Rather than standing alone, the pre-K center is folded into the Gwinnett Community Resource Center, a hub that already houses a library and a range of community and family services. For a family moving into the Shiloh Cluster, that means early learning, library access, and county family services are all reachable from the same address.
"By creating greater access to high-quality early learning, we are helping children build the academic, social, and developmental foundations they need to thrive in Kindergarten and beyond," said Kim Holland, GCPS Executive Director of Early Learning and School Readiness. Holland also called it "an exciting joint project" between the county and the school system, one designed to "give our youngest learners a strong start."
How families got in — and what's next
Seats at the Joyful Learning Academy were assigned by lottery for the 2026–27 school year: registration opened June 2, closed June 17 at 5 p.m., and the drawing was held June 23. That window has already closed for this school year, so families now settling into Snellville and the Shiloh Cluster with preschool- or Pre-K-age kids should watch GCPS's early learning page for next year's registration dates rather than expecting walk-in enrollment.
It's a small but concrete example of the kind of infrastructure investment happening around Gwinnett as the county grows — not just new subdivisions and retail, but new public seats for the youngest residents, built into facilities families already use. For anyone weighing a move into the Shiloh Cluster specifically, it's now one more thing on the list of what's actually there on the ground.