Enrollment down, Hope Scholarships up
Randolph County Schools losing students
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ELKINS – Enrollment is down, and Hope Scholarship numbers are up in Randolph County Schools this school year.
Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Derek Lambert gave the Board of Education an update on enrollment numbers during Tuesday’s meeting at the Central Office.
Before school started in August, Lambert announced that Randolph County Schools would have around 250 less students this year.
“The school system in Randolph County has experienced a 222 student decline in net enrollment between September 2025 and September 2026,” Lambert said during this week’s meeting. “While enrollment declined modestly during the 25-26 school year, the more significant decline occurred between June and September of 2026.”
Lambert told the Board that the decline was not evenly distributed across grades and schools, but there were noticeable increases in elementary grades and shifts in enrollment among individual schools.
“Hope Scholarship participation increased by 119%, from 193 students to 423 students in one year,” Lambert said. “And I will remind everyone that this was the first year that it was available to everyone.”
Lambert said Randolph County Schools started the last school year in 2025 with 3,372 students. At that point there were a total of 193 Hope Scholarship participants and 220 homeschooled students in the county.
“On Sept. 1 of 2026, we currently have 3,150 students, with a total of 423 Hope Scholarship students and 215 homeschooled students,” Lambert said. “Just for a frame of reference, about 200 kids equals a little over a million dollars in our budget.”
At the start of the 2024 school year, there were 3,487 students enrolled in Randolph County Schools. Over the past 10 years there has been a slow decline in enrollment, as the county has lost almost 700 students since 2016-2017.
The enrollment decline isn’t just limited to Randolph County, as it is happening statewide. According to data released by the West Virginia Board of Education, there has been a 15.32% decrease in public school students in the past decade.
In 2015 there were 277,452 students enrolled in West Virginia’s 55 county public school systems. That number dropped to 234,957 students at the start of the last school year in 2025.
The next Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be Sept. 15 at 5:30 p.m.
Submitted photo
Randolph County Schools Superintendent Derek Lambert and Data and Grant Specialist Trenna Robinson spoke during recent Community Conversations meetings at Elkins Middle School and Coalton School.