William E Burkett Multihandicapped Center, Morris AL

Original Research by School Decision on William E Burkett Multihandicapped Center

William E Burkett MultiHandicapped Center, located in Morris in northern Jefferson County, is a specialized public school serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Its designation as a special education school, and its name, indicate a focused mission: it exists to serve students with multiple, severe disabilities. This is a school for a specific population, not a general enrollment school, and everything about its profile should be read in that context.

The school is open but small, a fact that aligns with the specialized services it provides. The full student body is a small group, all of whom are enrolled in pre-kindergarten, a grade band that typically falls outside the state's standardized testing requirements for broader performance benchmarks. Because of this, conventional academic metrics like proficiency rates on state assessments are not applicable; the data shows no tested students and no proficiency rates. For a parent evaluating this school, the absence of test scores is not a red flag but an expected characteristic of a center designed around functional, therapeutic, and developmental goals rather than grade-level academic standards. For the same reason, there is no four-year graduation rate to report, as the high school grade levels (9-12) show no enrolled students in the data provided.

The student body is diverse. From the available enrollment data, the largest share of students are white, with a substantial proportion of Black students, and a smaller group identifying as two or more races. No data was available on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, or who have an Individualized Education Program. Given the school's purpose, it is reasonable to assume all students have significant disabilities and are served under IEPs, but the data does not confirm this explicitly.

Morris itself is a small, car-dependent residential community in northern Jefferson County, about a short drive north of Birmingham. The town has no traditional downtown; its civic and commercial spaces are dispersed along the U.S. Highway 31 corridor, which is the primary road. The housing stock is predominantly owner-occupied, single-family homes, with home values and household incomes that are on the upper end for Alabama. The school is one of a few educational institutions in the town, alongside an elementary school. As a bedroom community, most employed residents commute to Birmingham or other nearby employment centers. The town is seeing slow, modest growth.

The school is part of the Jefferson County school district, the county-wide public system. On a proficiency index measure that averages reported test scores across grade levels and subjects, this school's score was the lowest among the districts in Jefferson County. The comparison set is the twenty districts in the county, and the school's position is the bottom quartile. It is critical to understand that this metric, drawn from standardized tests, likely has little to no bearing on the quality of care, therapy, or instruction the school provides, as its students are not part of the standard testing population. A parent looking at this data should see it as a reflection of the school's unique mission, not as a measure of typical academic performance.

No recent district-level changes or initiatives were found through publicly reported sources that would be relevant to a parent evaluating this school. The school itself appears to be a stable, long-standing facility serving a specialized and vulnerable population. For a parent whose child has multiple, significant disabilities and requires a dedicated therapeutic and educational setting, this center presents itself as a regional resource within the Jefferson County system. For any family outside that specific need, this would not be the appropriate school. The profile is what the mission suggests: a place apart from the mainstream academic pipeline, focused on serving students who require intensive support.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

Not publicly reportedCohort of 5 students · Class of 2021

The federal source does not publish a graduation rate for cohorts this small. The cohort size is shown for context.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

373 schools plotted. 7 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 31% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 43 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 31% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 28% · ▼ 28 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 18% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 14% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 11% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 53% · ▼ 53 pts below district

▼ 65 pts below state median · ▼ 54 pts below county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 53% · ▼ 53 pts below district

▼ 58 pts below state median · ▼ 51 pts below county median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 59% · ▼ 59 pts below district

▼ 67 pts below state median · ▼ 56 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 47% · ▼ 47 pts below district

▼ 55 pts below state median · ▼ 41 pts below county median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 47% · ▼ 47 pts below district

▼ 54 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 44% · ▼ 44 pts below district

▼ 52 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Science

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 33% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 29% · ▼ 29 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

This schoolJefferson County, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.