SE Kentucky News

There were 904 students enrolled in Harlan Independent School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 7.1% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2022-23 school year, 51.9% were girls, and 48.1% of them were boys.

Data also shows that most of the students were white, representing 86.7% of the district's total enrollment.

Harlan Independent School District roughly covers three schools within Harlan County and has a main office in Harlan.

Among the three schools in Harlan Independent School District, Harlan High School recorded the highest enrollment of 415 students in the 2022-23 school year.

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.

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 2021-22	Total Enrollment in 2022-23	% change
Harlan High School	405	415	2.5%
Harlan Elementary School	330	375	13.6%
Sunshine School	109	114	4.6%