SE Kentucky News

There were 43 Hispanic or Latino students enrolled in Clay County schools in the 2022-23 school year, a 34.4% increase from the 32 Hispanic or Latino students in the previous school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Data showed that Clay County welcomed a total of 3,416 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Hispanic or Latino students comprised 1.3% of the student body to be the second most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 10 schools in Clay County, Clay County High School recorded the highest enrollment of Hispanic or Latino students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of nine students, making up 1.1% of the school's total student body.

Despite escaping some of the pandemic's educational disruptions, Kentucky's achievement gaps have remained an issue since 2019. In the eighth-grade reading assessments, for example, Hispanic students scored eight points lower than their white peers, and the gap reached 15 points in math. Black students fared even worse, falling more than 20 points behind and facing a failure rate nearly double that of their white counterparts.

School name	% of Hispanic or Latino Students Enrolment	Total Enrollment
Big Creek Elementary School	2%	151
Horse Creek Learning Center	2.1%	191
Burning Springs Elementary School	1.2%	337
Clay County Middle School	1.3%	471
Clay County High School	1.1%	818
Goose Rock Elementary School	0.4%	246
Manchester Elementary School	1.8%	438
Paces Creek Elementary School	2.3%	345