Fort Payne High School

Fort Payne High School is one of the sizable senior highs in Fort Payne, Alabama, one of the schools within Fort Payne City, with 1,106 students on its rolls from grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 682 students per school, that is 62% above typical.

Fort Payne City runs 5 schools in total, collectively educating 3,508 students. Fort Payne High School is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Fort Payne High School reports that 47% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest looks like 45% White, 3% Black, 2% multiracial. By comparison, DeKalb County as a whole is about 17% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 66 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.8:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 17.2:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 62% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Fort Payne High School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 38.8%; this one delivers 27.7%.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for DeKalb County put the typical household earns roughly $51,204 per year, 14% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 16%. Fort Payne High School is one of 20 public schools in DeKalb County (combined enrollment of about 12,277 students).

Nearest neighbor: Fort Payne Middle School, around 0.4 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 4 other public schools cluster around Fort Payne High School. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Fort Payne High School ranks 7th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 35.1%.

The campus sits in a town-center setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Fort Payne High School has rose 18%, going from 937 students in 2018 to 1,106 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment expanded from 35% to 47% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 17.9:1 in 2018 to 16.8:1 in 2025.

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