City and district rankings from federal incident data · 2021-22 collection
Every one of the five schools in Garrard County's scored set filed records complete enough to grade. In Rowan County, five of ten did. Both districts rank near the top of what we can rank in Kentucky, and the gap between those two counts is not a gap in safety — it is a difference in how much made it into the federal collection.
That distinction runs through this whole page. Every figure here comes from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. We compare each school to schools across the country of similar enrollment teaching the same grade levels, and we ask a narrow question: did this school report enough for its records to be believed? Of the 1,548 schools in Kentucky, 1,096 carry a published safety score. The rest do not, because we only publish a score where the underlying reporting holds up. A blank is the method working, not a hole in it.
Kentucky's reporting is unusually consistent. We grade 27 schools in the state as doubtful reporters — 1.7% of Kentucky schools, against 11.3% nationally. Read that carefully. It means Kentucky schools, as a group, filed records we can work with. It does not mean Kentucky children are safer than children elsewhere. This comparison is not adjusted for state, and differences between states in this data are differences in reporting habits, not in what happens to kids. A doubtful grade is also not an accusation about a school. It means records we cannot verify.
Kentucky has 174 school districts. Only 71 have enough scoreable schools to rank, so most districts on this page appear without a ranking — small districts often do not clear that bar.
Among the districts we can rank, Grayson County and Woodford County each rank safer than 99% of ranked U.S. districts. Rockcastle County ranks safer than 97%, Rowan County safer than 95%, and Garrard County safer than 94%. These are rankings built from schools whose reporting we trust. Where a district is missing here, start by asking what its schools reported.
Percentile is against all ranked U.S. cities (higher = safer). Only cities with ≥5 trustworthy-data schools are ranked. Home value is Zillow's ZHVI.
| # | CITY | SAFETY PCTL | SCHOOLS | HOME VALUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Versailles | 99 | 5 of 6 | $360,177 |
| 2 | Mount Washington | 99 | 7 of 7 | $330,041 |
| 3 | Nicholasville | 99 | 9 of 11 | $327,265 |
| 4 | Corbin | 98 | 7 of 12 | $171,534 |
| 5 | Richmond | 97 | 10 of 14 | $303,364 |
| 6 | Hebron | 97 | 5 of 5 | $385,895 |
| 7 | Danville | 96 | 6 of 11 | $255,060 |
| 8 | Lawrenceburg | 94 | 5 of 6 | $270,554 |
| 9 | Union | 94 | 7 of 7 | $468,989 |
| 10 | Benton | 92 | 7 of 9 | $184,917 |
| 11 | Lebanon | 92 | 5 of 7 | $233,802 |
| 12 | Independence | 92 | 6 of 6 | $333,160 |
| 13 | Shelbyville | 92 | 9 of 11 | $310,943 |
| 14 | Fort Thomas | 90 | 5 of 5 | $381,896 |
| 15 | Murray | 90 | 6 of 12 | $200,220 |
| 16 | Covington | 88 | 8 of 13 | $225,550 |
| 17 | Grayson | 88 | 5 of 5 | $176,609 |
| 18 | Louisa | 88 | 5 of 5 | $145,864 |
| 19 | Crestwood | 88 | 8 of 8 | $493,290 |
| 20 | Georgetown | 88 | 12 of 15 | $343,497 |
| 21 | Winchester | 87 | 8 of 9 | $256,091 |
| 22 | Hazard | 87 | 7 of 9 | $104,527 |
| 23 | Berea | 85 | 8 of 9 | $251,321 |
| 24 | Liberty | 84 | 5 of 5 | $159,857 |
| 25 | Dry Ridge | 84 | 5 of 5 | $295,996 |
| 26 | Ashland | 84 | 8 of 17 | $126,566 |
| 27 | Whitesburg | 83 | 5 of 5 | $90,775 |
| 28 | Somerset | 82 | 10 of 14 | $202,527 |
| 29 | Paducah | 82 | 13 of 17 | $192,214 |
| 30 | Shepherdsville | 81 | 11 of 12 | $289,743 |
| 31 | Florence | 81 | 9 of 9 | $293,150 |
| 32 | Frankfort | 78 | 14 of 18 | $247,817 |
| 33 | Glasgow | 77 | 12 of 15 | $221,155 |
| 34 | Greenville | 74 | 6 of 6 | $146,981 |
| 35 | Henderson | 74 | 10 of 11 | $206,305 |
| 36 | Pikeville | 71 | 9 of 11 | $128,638 |
| 37 | Mayfield | 70 | 7 of 10 | $162,674 |
| 38 | Mount Sterling | 70 | 7 of 8 | $222,699 |
| 39 | Bowling Green | 69 | 27 of 37 | $288,478 |
| 40 | Russellville | 69 | 6 of 8 | $194,296 |
| 41 | Erlanger | 68 | 5 of 7 | $252,728 |
| 42 | Madisonville | 67 | 8 of 10 | $156,799 |
| 43 | Louisville | 66 | 143 of 160 | $267,770 |
| 44 | Paris | 65 | 6 of 9 | $266,417 |
| 45 | Campbellsville | 62 | 6 of 10 | $217,801 |
| 46 | London | 60 | 12 of 14 | $185,674 |
| 47 | Williamsburg | 60 | 8 of 10 | $124,822 |
| 48 | Elizabethtown | 58 | 14 of 16 | $271,662 |
| 49 | Owensboro | 56 | 24 of 30 | $216,394 |
| 50 | Paintsville | 55 | 5 of 6 | $137,328 |
| # | DISTRICT | SAFETY PCTL | SCHOOLS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grayson County | 99 | 5 of 7 |
| 2 | Woodford County | 99 | 6 of 7 |
| 3 | Rockcastle County | 97 | 5 of 6 |
| 4 | Rowan County | 95 | 5 of 10 |
| 5 | Garrard County | 94 | 5 of 5 |
| 6 | Kenton County | 94 | 15 of 18 |
| 7 | Anderson County | 93 | 5 of 6 |
| 8 | Marion County | 92 | 6 of 8 |
| 9 | Shelby County | 91 | 11 of 13 |
| 10 | Madison County | 91 | 15 of 21 |
| 11 | Marshall County | 90 | 8 of 11 |
| 12 | Carter County | 90 | 9 of 11 |
| 13 | Boone County | 89 | 26 of 27 |
| 14 | Fort Thomas Independent | 87 | 5 of 5 |
| 15 | Bullitt County | 87 | 23 of 25 |
| 16 | Lincoln County | 86 | 7 of 7 |
| 17 | Union County | 85 | 5 of 7 |
| 18 | Scott County | 84 | 12 of 16 |
| 19 | Clark County | 84 | 8 of 9 |
| 20 | Johnson County | 83 | 6 of 8 |
| 21 | Grant County | 83 | 6 of 6 |
| 22 | Perry County | 82 | 7 of 10 |
| 23 | Jessamine County | 82 | 11 of 13 |
| 24 | Lawrence County | 82 | 6 of 6 |
| 25 | Hardin County | 81 | 20 of 25 |