Boone County
Boone County Was Below 90% Attendance in Six of Eight Years
Boone County Schools reported attendance below 90% in six of the eight school years from 2017-18 through 2024-25. Its rate was 89.0% in 2017-18 and 88.7% in 2024-25, a decline of 0.3 percentage points...
92 of 117 West Virginia High Schools Hit 90% Attendance in 2024-25
Most West Virginia high schools are holding the line. 92 of 117 posted attendance rates at or above 90% in 2024-25, including Oak Glen High School in Hancock County at 96.2% and George Washington High...
Mingo County Cleared 90% Attendance. Four Coal Neighbors Are Still Climbing Back.
> Correction (May 29, 2026): An earlier version of this article overstated several figures. There are 16 schools statewide below 88% attendance (not 14), two of them outside the coal corridor. The fiv...
One in 18 West Virginia Students Is Now Classified as Homeless
In Jefferson County, 1,160 students are classified as homeless, more than any other county in the state, in a district you might not associate with the word. Jefferson County sits in the Eastern Panha...
Nine Counties, One Pattern: When the State Steps In
In January 2026, the West Virginia Board of Education voted unanimously to take over Hancock County Schools. The superintendent was removed. The assistant superintendent was removed. A state-appointed...
A 13,000-Student Gap Shrinks to 726
In 2011, seven coal counties in southern West Virginia enrolled 42,554 students. Three Eastern Panhandle counties, tucked against the Maryland border 250 miles away, enrolled 29,182. The gap between t...
McDowell County has lost 42% of its students
In 2010-11, McDowell County enrolled 3,559 students. Fifteen years later, the number is 2,075. That is a loss of 1,484 students, a 41.7% decline, the steepest of any county in West Virginia. It is als...
Three West Virginia Districts Grew Since 2011. Forty-Eight Are at Historical Lows.
> Correction: An earlier version used an outdated enrollment panel. This version uses the current published 2011-2026 panel and updates the statewide and county-system figures.
Kanawha County hits all-time low after losing 6,326 students
Every year since 2014, Kanawha County has started the school year with fewer students than the year before. Thirteen consecutive years of decline have carried West Virginia's largest district from 28,...