Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Old Dominion
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Virginia, grounded in Virginia Department of Education data.
Loudoun County's count of students who were chronically absent surged from 4,094 to 15,284 between 2020-21 and 2022-23, bringing its published rate close to the state average.
Virginia's published kindergarten chronic-absence rate rose to 25.2% in 2022-23, up 10.2 points from 2019-20 and second only to grade 12.
Petersburg City's chronic absenteeism rate rose every year from 28.2% in 2019-20 to 43.1% in 2022-23.
VDOE reports a 49.1% chronic absence rate for students identified as homeless in 2022-23, about two and a half times the statewide rate and the highest of any student group the state reports.
Only 12 of 130 comparable Virginia school divisions were at or below their 2019-20 chronic absenteeism rate in 2022-23, and those divisions enrolled 2.8% of students in the comparison.
Virginia counted 236,104 chronically absent students in 2022-23, down 8,898 from the prior year but far above the 2019-20 count.
For eight straight school years, Virginia has had more seniors than kindergartners. By 2024-25 the K-to-G12 ratio had fallen to 86.6, a pipeline collapse now reaching high school.
Virginia added 10,932 special education students in two years while total enrollment declined, pushing IEP enrollment to 185,155 and exposing a funding gap.
Richmond fall membership is down 18% since 2003, but virtual-school enrollment and ADM data show the 2021 spike was not a simple local headcount change.
Multiracial enrollment grew 73.1% from 2010-11 to 2024-25 and rose every year, second only to Hispanic growth; aggregate data cannot separate population change from classification effects.
More than a quarter of Virginia school divisions recorded their worst-ever graduation rate in 2023, including Norfolk, Bedford, and Portsmouth.
Virginia Beach improved its displayed graduation rate in all four transitions from 2019 through 2023, the only such streak among 128 complete division panels.
Osbourn High School in Manassas City improved from 77.7% to 89.5% between 2019 and 2023, closing a 14-point gap with the state.
Fairfax County's 93.4% graduation rate masks three alternative schools where 40-79% of students drop out, serving 431 students where dropping out is the majority outcome.
Virginia added 14,683 English learners in two years while total enrollment fell. Two divisions are now majority-LEP, and the growth is spreading statewide.
