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.
Derek Lambert took over Randolph County Schools on July 1. Graduation and attendance beat the state every year on record; test scores are the gap.
Pocahontas County's 2024-25 attendance rate was 1.4 percentage points below 2021-22, the largest shortfall among five West Virginia counties that had not recovered.
Boone County reported an 88.7% attendance rate in 2024-25; seven of its 12 schools and all three high schools were below 90%.
Special education students attend at 91.3% — a persistent 1-point gap below the state average that existed before COVID and hasn't narrowed since. With SpEd approaching 1 in 5 students, the gap affects a growing share of the system.
West Virginia foster care attendance fell 5.0 points from 2019 to 2022, then rebounded 4.6 points by 2025 — the largest moves in both directions among state subgroups with published endpoint rates.
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.
After peaking at 282,309 students in 2013, West Virginia public schools reached 234,957 in 2026, a loss of 47,352 students.
