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Kanawha County · West Virginia

Charleston, WV public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Kanawha County Schools — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Kanawha County Schools is the primary public district for Charleston, WV. It enrolls 23,864 students in 67 schools with 1,648 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $17,076 per pupil, 1% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
23,864NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
67Operating school count
Students per teacher
14.5Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$17,076Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Charleston

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
35.6%
$145,227,000
State revenue
44.6%
$181,746,000
Federal revenue
19.8%
$80,573,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Charleston property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 45 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Charleston numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

Spending of $17,076 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 1 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Only 45 cents of each dollar ($7,608 per student) is classified as instruction, so a large share goes to support services, facilities and transport — common in districts with long bus routes or older buildings.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 35.6% local, 44.6% state — so both the local tax base and the WV aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 19.8% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

23,864 students across 67 schools averages 356 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). That is a small-building district; neighbourhood elementary schools dominate the count. The 14.5:1 student-to-teacher ratio is ordinary for this set of districts (median 15.2:1). It counts all FTE teachers district-wide, so actual class sizes run higher.

Worth flagging: a federal share this large means the district is exposed to grant cycles. Title I and pandemic-era relief awards can move the per-pupil figure between survey years without any change in local taxation.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Kanawha County Schools is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Charleston city limits and these figures describe that wider area. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Charleston datasets on this site.

Statewide: West Virginia cities · West Virginia ZIP codes · West Virginia sales tax · West Virginia counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 5400600. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.