Alabama’s first health care high school opens with 83 students from 51 cities

The Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences opened its first classes Thursday, Aug. 13. The inaugural class has 83 students drawn from 51 Alabama cities. The school is the state’s fourth public residential specialty school and the first built entirely around health care. Its first year runs at a temporary campus at the University of West Alabama in Livingston while a permanent campus is built in Demopolis.

LIVINGSTON, AL – Alabama’s newest public high school opened Thursday, and every student in it is there to study health care.

The Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences welcomed its first class of 83 students, who come from 51 cities across the state. The school is residential, meaning students live on campus rather than commuting from home.

It is the fourth free, state-supported residential specialty school operating under the Alabama State Department of Education. The other three focus on fine arts, math and science, and cyber technology and engineering. This is the first one in Alabama built entirely around health care.

Where is the school located?

Two places, for now.

The first class begins on a temporary campus on the grounds of the University of West Alabama in Livingston. Students will live and study there while the permanent campus is finished.

That permanent campus is a 10-acre site in Demopolis, in the Black Belt region of west Alabama. Construction is being handled by Brasfield and Gorrie, and school officials have said the work is running ahead of schedule, with the buildings expected to be ready for occupancy in the summer of 2027.

The Demopolis site sits next to Whitfield Regional Hospital, which serves as the school’s primary medical partner. Putting the campus beside a working rural hospital is deliberate. Students are meant to train near real patients and real clinical staff rather than only in classrooms.

Why did the state build a high school for health care?

Because rural Alabama does not have enough health care workers.

Small-town hospitals and clinics across the state struggle to fill nursing, imaging and technician positions. Students from those communities who go into medicine often train in larger cities and build careers there instead of returning home.

The school is designed to interrupt that pattern. By recruiting students from rural areas and starting their training in the ninth grade, the state is betting that more of them will come back to work in the communities they came from.

Students can begin earning credentials before they graduate high school. School officials have described pathways that include nursing certificates and radiologic technology credentials, which would let a graduate go straight into a hospital job in a town like Demopolis or continue on to college and professional training.

Who is paying for it?

The school is free to students and supported by the state. Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed $26.4 million as part of a $250 million national effort to launch health-care-focused career and technical high schools in 10 communities around the country.

Alabama’s is the only school in that group being built new from the ground up. The others are attached to existing schools or systems.

Gov. Kay Ivey pushed for the school in the Legislature and for placing it in west Alabama. She took part in the groundbreaking in Demopolis in October 2025.

Who runs the school?

Laura Bailey, a longtime educator, was named head of school. Dr. James Martin serves as president.

Dr. Selwyn Vickers, a Demopolis native who leads Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, agreed to serve as a special adviser to the school and its foundation. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is also supporting the program.

Faculty, staff and residential life personnel were fully hired before the school year began. Students and families attended a first orientation in Demopolis in June, followed by a series of online sessions to help students prepare for living away from home.

Is anyone from Etowah County enrolled?

That is not yet clear. The school has said its 83 students come from 51 cities but has not published a list of those cities.

GadsdenThrive is asking the school whether any students from Etowah County or the surrounding area are in the inaugural class, and will report what comes back.

Applications for the school involve an online submission, input from a counselor and teachers, and an interview. Students from all 67 Alabama counties are eligible to apply.

Frequently asked questions

When did the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences open? Classes began Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026.

How many students are in the first class? 83, from 51 Alabama cities.

Where do students attend now? A temporary campus at the University of West Alabama in Livingston.

When will the Demopolis campus open? The 10-acre permanent campus is expected to be ready for occupancy in summer 2027.

Does it cost anything? No. It is a free, state-supported residential school.

Read more Gadsden and Etowah County news from GadsdenThrive.