SE Kentucky News

There were 444 ninth grade students enrolled in Perry County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 1.8% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Perry County Central High School welcomed most of the ninth grade students in the county, registering 276 students.

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

Statewide, Perry County ranked 33rd in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 33rd 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 9th Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Perry County Central High School	276	29.6%	932
Hazard High School	97	30.7%	316
Learning Academy	36	37.5%	96
Buckhorn School	35	9.8%	357