By Shauna Johnson, WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Student enrollment continues to decline at West Virginia’s public schools, according to information Dr. Steve Paine, the state superintendent of schools, presented to members of the state Board of Education Wednesday.
The numbers, compared with the past 15 years, were included in his state Department of Education Year In Review for 2018-2019.
See the full report HERE.
In all, 265,755 students were enrolled in 691 public schools in West Virginia’s 55 counties during the last school year.
“We’d like that number to go up. It was 284,000 when I was here the first time,” Paine told the BOE.
While overall enrollment has dropped, the number of public school students in foster care has almost doubled since 2000, Paine reported, due to the opioid epidemic and other factors.
All of those factors affect student achievement.