Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Mountain State
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of West Virginia, grounded in West Virginia Department of Education data.
Beckley's home county is one of three at record-low attendance and one of five that worsened since the 2022 trough. Independence Middle and High are Raleigh County's lowest-attendance schools.
After briefly improving, Logan County's attendance reversed in 2024-25. Man Senior High leads the state's worst at 84.7%. Only 3 of the county's 17 schools are above 90%.
Wayne County's attendance surged from 86.0% to 91.0% since the 2022 trough, with Tolsia High School gaining nearly 10 points. What happened in this southern WV county?
West Virginia's largest county and state capital posted its lowest attendance ever at 91.4%, one of five counties that worsened since the 2022 trough even as the state recovered.
92 of 117 WV high schools held attendance at or above 90% last year. The 25 below that mark cluster in five southern coal counties, where Wayne County leads a 5-point recovery from its 2022 trough.
16 of West Virginia's 55 counties have returned to or surpassed their 2019 attendance rates. 15 more are on three consecutive years of gains, led by Wayne, Summers, and Wyoming counties.
Mingo County recovered above 90% attendance while its four coal-country neighbors trail the state. The region averages 89.0%, about 3.3 points below West Virginia.
The number of West Virginia students who are currently homeless surged 69% since 2018, even as total enrollment fell 11%. Their attendance rate lags 2.3 points behind the state average.
Three years of post-COVID improvement are fading. The state recovered 70% of lost attendance but annual gains shrank from 0.58 to 0.40 points, leaving 39 of 55 counties below pre-pandemic levels.
Since peaking at 282,309 in 2013, West Virginia public schools have shed 52,663 students with no reprieve, reaching an all-time low of 229,646.
Braxton, Pocahontas, and Roane counties have lost students every single year for 15 straight years, the longest active decline streaks in West Virginia.
Nine West Virginia county school systems are under state takeover or emergency. All nine have declining enrollment. The financial crises follow the students out the door.
Berkeley and Doddridge are the only West Virginia counties with more students than in 2019. The other 53 are still falling, and 52 are falling faster.
Of 55 West Virginia districts, only three have grown since 2011. Berkeley County added 1,996 students while the state lost 52,484. But 2026 brought the first crack.
In Clay County, 33.5% of students are classified as homeless under federal law, eight times the state rate and a window into rural WV's housing crisis.
