Perry County
Alabama's Black Belt: Where Chronic Absenteeism Is Twice the State Average
Across a crescent of rural counties stretching from southwestern Alabama to the state's eastern border, students miss school at nearly twice the rate of their peers statewide.
30 Alabama Districts Now Serve Fewer Than 1,000 Students
In Linden City, the eighth grade class has 19 students. Five of the district's 13 grade levels have fewer than 30. The entire system enrolls 399 children, down 27.8% from 553 a decade ago.
One in Three Alabama Districts at All-Time Enrollment Lows
The four largest school districts in Alabama have never enrolled fewer students than they do right now. Mobile County, Jefferson County, Montgomery County, and Birmingham City all hit record lows in 2...
Eleven Rural Alabama Districts Have Lost 40% of Their Students Since 2015
Perry County enrolled 1,730 students in 2015. This year it enrolls 731. That is not a typo. The district has lost 57.7% of its students in 11 years, a rate of decline so steep that it amounts to losin...
Nine Alabama Districts Haven't Grown in Over a Decade
Perry County enrolled 731 students in 2025-26. Eleven years ago, it enrolled 1,730. Not once in the intervening years did enrollment rise, not by a single student, not for a single year.
714,363: Alabama Hits Its Lowest Enrollment in Over a Decade
State Superintendent Eric Mackey put it plainly in October: "They're just gone." He was talking about roughly 2,100 students who were enrolled in Alabama public schools last year and simply did not re...