SE Kentucky News

There were 367 first grade students enrolled in Bell County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 7.3% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Middlesboro Elementary School welcomed most of the first grade students in the county, registering 97 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 1st Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Middlesboro Elementary School	97	19.6%	496
Yellow Creek School Center	71	11.2%	636
Bell Central School Center	65	12.1%	536
Pineville Independent School	49	7.6%	641
Page School Center	27	8.4%	320
Lone Jack School Center	26	11.4%	229
Right Fork School Center	21	12.4%	170
Frakes School Center	11	9.3%	118