East Pennyroyal News

There were 200 first grade students enrolled in Casey County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 0.5% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Liberty Elementary School welcomed most of the first grade students in the county, registering 72 students.

Within Casey County schools, the highest student population was found in kindergarten and first grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in preschool.

Statewide, Casey County ranked 77th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 77th the year before.

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.

School	# of 1st Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Liberty Elementary School	72	16.7%	430
Walnut Hill Elementary School	66	15.5%	425
Jones Park Elementary School	62	19.9%	311