During the 2017-2018 Band season, Decatur High School won The American Prize in Band/Wind Ensemble Performance, a national award for excellence in that field. The realization of the astonishing accomplishment happened in July when the winners were announced for the youth, high school, and college levels.

Decatur implemented new school policies on August 20 to combat tardiness, including a warning bell and a limit on tardies. Assistant Principal Wesley Hatfield said that he hopes these new school policies will decrease the amount of students who are late to class or who are skipping. When Hatfield graduated from Decatur in 1999, they had a warning bell, but they stopped it when they switched to a 7-period schedule.