East Kentucky Times

There were 220 preschool students enrolled in Johnson County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 13.4% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Highland Elementary School welcomed most of the preschool students in the county, registering 64 students.

Within Johnson County schools, the highest student population was found in 12th grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in preschool.

Statewide, Johnson County ranked 40th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 40th 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 Preschool Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Highland Elementary School	64	13.8%	463
Paintsville Elementary School	42	9%	467
Porter Elementary School	37	8.3%	445
Central Elementary School	35	9.1%	385
W. R. Castle Memorial Elementary School	22	5.2%	421
Flat Gap Elementary School	20	8.8%	226