The school is located at 400 23rd Avenue between E. Alder and E. Jefferson Streets in the Central District section of Seattle.

Garfield is a high school designated to serve students identified by the district as academically highly gifted,[2] so the school offers many college-level classes, ranging from calculus-based physics to Advanced Placement (AP) studio art.

[4] Garfield High School has long played a key role in its neighborhood, the Central District.

Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson,[7] and Stokely Carmichael are among notable people who have spoken at the school.

[8] The buildings have lasted for more than eight decades, but they were partially demolished in a sweeping redesign of the school that began in June 2006.

Among the many terracotta details worked into the building are emblems of botany, the trades, arts and crafts, industry, intelligence, and the sciences.

[27] The girls team boasts alumna Joyce Walker (GHS c/o 1980), who is best known as the third woman to join the Harlem Globetrotters.

The win in 2024 was the fourth consecutive state championship for the girls (as no champion was crowned during the 2021 pandemic year).

[citation needed] Garfield won state titles in boys and girls track in 1987 and 2017.

[citation needed] The boys cross country team won the Metro League championship in 2016.

[34] Players on the team stated that they had received death threats and had their car's tires slashed due to the protests.

[36] In 2005, Garfield's performance of Cabaret won the Outstanding Program and Poster Design award and Special Honors in Educational Impact and Student Achievement from the 5th Avenue Theatre.

A notable element of Garfield's drama program is that student leadership is present in all areas of theater.

The Messenger has earned awards from the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association, placing in Best of Show in the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Conventions and winning its most prestigious honor, the Pacemaker Award, in 1997 and 2006.

One of Garfield's teams beat Ingraham in the finals of the 2019 season's culminating tournament to become state champions.

Several notable musicians attended the school, including Jimi Hendrix, Lil Tracy, Quincy Jones, Macklemore, and Ernestine Anderson.

Garfield students also play in the Seattle Conservatory of Music Starling Scholar Chamber Orchestra, and many community ensembles.

Garfield's jazz program has won state, national and international awards and accolades in big band, combo and individual categories.

It has also attended the International Association of Jazz Educators' conference, as well as the Essentially Ellington Competition in New York City.

[53] A 17-year-old student was shot and killed in front of the school on June 6, 2024, prompting increased security measures.