Boone County
West Virginia Has Lost Students for 13 Straight Years
No state in the country has had a year like West Virginia just did. The 2025-26 school year brought the steepest single-year enrollment loss since COVID, with 7,693 students vanishing from the rolls. ...
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...
Forty-Nine of Fifty-Five at All-Time Lows
Doddridge County enrolled 1,211 students in 2026. It is the only county school district in West Virginia at an all-time enrollment high.
Kanawha County hits all-time low after losing 6,400 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,...