Education

Public, Private, Vocational & Collegiate

From pre-school to doctoral degrees, Dothan’s educational sector covers most business and societal needs to improve and provide a wide variety of educational opportunities. Local efforts to support education through personal and financial commitments have helped to make Dothan and Houston County excellent school systems. There are several superb elementary and secondary schools with religious and college-preparatory curricula, if you prefer a private system.

Dothan area residents are extremely concerned with providing our children with the best education attainable. As a result, the school systems adopted a Career Quest/Technical Preparation program. It emphasizes advanced communications, mathematical, scientific, technological knowledge and skill development to graduate well-trained and educated employees and employers. Industrial/Engineering, Health/Human Services, Business/Information Systems and Arts/Humanities make up the four program clusters and lead to college or training for immediate employment in the workforce. The programs have since become a national model.

High school graduates may attend Wallace Community College, a two-year associate degree institution, or Troy University Dothan, a four-year university that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in many disciplines. Vocational education is available in the Dothan area as well. Facilities and programs at the Dothan Technology Center, Houston County Career and Technical Center and Wallace Community College provide for development of skills needed to pursue many different jobs.

Medical School

In the early 1990s, leaders in Alabama identified the need for more primary care physicians in the state, and in 2005, after years of coordinating activities to accomplish this goal, formed the Alabama Medical Education Consortium.

After careful research and examination, the AMEC and the Houston County Health Care Authority, the operator of Southeast Health, determined that it would be feasible for the state to develop its own college of osteopathic medicine to address the shortage of primary care physicians in the state. In May 2010, the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine, a nonprofit, private institution, was established.

ACOM received its Private School licensure from the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education in 2011, and provisional accreditation with the ability to recruit students from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation on July 1, 2012.

The Dothan area welcomed ACOM to its extensive list of educational opportunities when the school opened its doors and welcomed its first class of students in August 2013. (Source: www.acom.edu).

Public Schools

Dothan

Dothan City Schools serves more than 8,000 Pre-Kindergarten through 12th-grade students. 17 schools comprise the district, including two Pre-K centers, 10 elementary schools including one special admission math and science school, one school that exclusively serves 6th grade, one ninth-grade academy, one virtual school for grades seventh-12th, and one high school that serves grades 10th-12th, and two program sites dedicated to specialty education: one for students receiving alternative education and a career-technical education facility for grades 10th-12th. For more information, visit www.dothan.k12.al.us.

There is also one community college (Wallace Community College) and one regional university (Troy University) in Dothan.

Houston County

Houston County Schools serve approximately 6770 students. The system consists of one K-12 virtual school, one PreK-3 school, one PreK-5 school, three PreK-6 schools, one 6-8 school, one 7-8 school, three 7-12 schools, two 9-12 schools, a career academy that serves students in grades 9-12 from throughout the county, one Alternative School, and Hope High School which serves at-risk students in grades 9-12. For more information, visit www.hcboe.us.

Private Schools

There are 12 private and/or parochial schools in Dothan and Houston County combined.

School Enrollment

Children may be enrolled in the public-school system by contacting the Dothan City Board of Education, 1665 Honeysuckle Road, Dothan, AL 36305 (334) 793-1397 or the Houston County Board of Education, 404 W. Washington St., Dothan, AL 36301 (334) 792-8331.