SE Kentucky News

There were 321 kindergarten students enrolled in Bell County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 11.1% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Middlesboro Elementary School welcomed most of the kindergarten students in the county, registering 81 students.

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

Statewide, Bell County ranked 39th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 39th 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 Kindergarten Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Middlesboro Elementary School	81	16.3%	496
Bell Central School Center	66	12.3%	536
Yellow Creek School Center	55	8.6%	636
Pineville Independent School	48	7.5%	641
Page School Center	31	9.7%	320
Right Fork School Center	18	10.6%	170
Lone Jack School Center	14	6.1%	229
Frakes School Center	8	6.8%	118