Virginia counted 234,822 chronically absent students in 2022-23, or 18.6% of public-school enrollment. That was 9,231 fewer students and 0.9 percentage points lower than in 2021-22.

The decline reversed only 11.2% of the increase between 2019-20 and 2021-22. On the package's four-year series, the latest rate remained 7.2 points above the 2019-20 rate.

Four years of sharp movement

In 2019-20, Virginia recorded 148,192 chronically absent students, a rate of 11.4%. The count fell to 133,428 and the rate to 10.7% in 2020-21. It then rose to 244,053 students and 19.5% in 2021-22 before easing in 2022-23.

The package data establishes those counts and rates, but it does not identify the cause of the 2020-21 dip or the following increase. This article therefore treats the changes as measured movements in the series, not as evidence that a particular policy or school format caused them.

The equity picture is worse than the average

The statewide rate masks large subgroup differences. Among students identified as homeless, 5,429 of 8,998 were chronically absent, a rate of 60.3% and more than three times the statewide rate. The rate was 26.8% among economically disadvantaged students, 24.6% among special education students and 23.5% among Hispanic students.

Asian students had the lowest rate among the highlighted groups at 13.9%, followed by white students at 15.9%. The rate for Black students was 21.2%, leaving a 5.3-point Black-white gap. That gap was 3.2 points in 2019-20.

234,822 students, concentrated in a few places

Fairfax County^↗ET accounted for 29,893 chronically absent students in 2022-23, 12.7% of the state total. Prince William County^↗ET had 17,757, and Loudoun County had 15,271. The ten divisions with the largest counts together had 118,073 chronically absent students, or 50.3% of the statewide count.

Rate rankings show a different map. Petersburg had Virginia's highest division rate at 38.6%. Greensville County ranked fifth at 33.0%, and Manassas Park ranked eighth at 31.2%. Those three divisions together accounted for 3,390 chronically absent students, or 1.4% of the statewide count.

The distinction is arithmetic: large divisions dominate the statewide total, while several smaller divisions carry the highest rates. The package measures both patterns, but it does not establish which local conditions produced them.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.