SE Kentucky News

There were 817 students enrolled in Owsley County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 8.4% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Boys made up 52.4% of the county student body, while the other 47.6% were girls.

Data also showed that white students made up 97.2% of the student body, the largest percentage in Owsley County schools, followed by 2% of Hispanic students, 0.5% of multiracial students and 0.4% of Black students.

Owsley County Elementary School had the highest enrollment among Owsley County’s two schools in the 2022-23 cycle, welcoming 426 students.

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.

Kentucky is in the midst of a statewide teacher shortage as turnover rates spiked to 10.9% in 2023, up from an 8.9% nine-year average. This issue is more prominent in schools with more low-income and minority students.

Data also shows that between 2019 and 2023, there was an increase of 260% in the number of available teaching posts in Kentucky schools. This often leads to larger class sizes, combining programs, and retaining staff despite potential negative impacts on teacher working conditions.

School Name	Total Enrollment in 2022	Total Enrollment in 2023	% change
Owsley County Elementary School	446	426	-4.7%
Owsley County High School	415	391	-6.1%