Absence
Virginia's Chronic Absenteeism Rate Remained at 18.6% in 2022-23
Virginia counted 234,822 chronically absent students in 2022-23, down 9,231 from the prior year but far above the 2019-20 count.
Virginia
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Virginia, grounded in Virginia Department of Education data.
Virginia Kindergarten Chronic Absence Reached 25.2%, Second Only to Grade 12
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's Chronic Absenteeism Has Climbed Every Year Since 2020, Reaching 39%
Petersburg City's chronic absenteeism rate rose every year from 25.0% in 2019-20 to 38.6% in 2022-23.
Virginia Counts 5,429 Homeless Students as Chronically Absent, but Its Public Files Do Not Support a Rate
Virginia's absence file reports 5,429 chronically absent students identified as homeless in 2022-23, while a separate enrollment file creates impossible division-level rates when used as the denominator.
118 Virginia Divisions Had Higher Chronic Absence in 2022-23 Than in 2019-20
Only 13 of 131 comparable Virginia school divisions were at or below their 2019-20 chronic absenteeism rate in 2022-23, and those divisions enrolled 2.9% of students in the comparison.
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Enrollment
Virginia Graduates 13,000 More Than It Enrolls as Kindergartners
For eight straight years, Virginia has had more seniors than kindergartners. The K-to-G12 ratio has fallen to 86.6, signaling a pipeline collapse now reaching high school.
Special Populations
185,000 Virginia Students Now Have IEPs
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.
District Spotlight
Richmond's Enrollment Decline Is Real, But VAVA Blurs the Baseline
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.
Demographics
One in 14 Virginia Students Now Identifies as Multiracial
Multiracial enrollment grew 81.8% since 2011, the fastest growth of any racial group in Virginia; aggregate data cannot separate population change from classification effects.
Graduation Rate
38 Virginia Divisions Hit Their Worst-Ever Graduation Rate in 2023. 24 Hit Their Best.
More than a quarter of Virginia school divisions recorded their worst-ever graduation rate in 2023, including Norfolk, Bedford, and Portsmouth.
District Spotlight
Virginia Beach Was the Only Complete-Panel Division With Four Straight Graduation Gains
Virginia Beach improved its displayed graduation rate in all four transitions from 2019 through 2023, the only such streak among 128 complete division panels.
District Spotlight
Manassas City's Graduation Rate Climbed 12 Points in Four Years. Its Dropout Rate Was Cut in Half.
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.
Graduation Rate
Fairfax County Graduates 93% of Its Students. Three of Its Schools Tell a Different Story.
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.
Special Populations
One in Seven Virginia Students Is an English Learner
Virginia added 14,686 English learners in two years while total enrollment fell. Two divisions are now majority-LEP, and the growth is spreading statewide.
District Spotlight
Danville's Graduation Rate Has Fallen Every Year Since 2019. Its Dropout Rate Has Nearly Doubled.
Danville City's graduation rate dropped from 81.8% to 73.3% over four years, while its dropout rate climbed from 9.4% to 17%, the largest increase in Virginia.
