SE Kentucky News

There were 64 first grade students enrolled in Owsley County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 14.3% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Owsley County Elementary School is the only school in the county that welcomed first grade students.

Within Owsley County schools, the highest student population was found in preschool, with the smallest class sizes seen in fourth grade.

Statewide, Owsley County ranked 117th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 117th the year before.

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	# of 1st Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Owsley County Elementary School	64	15%	426