Alleghany Highlands - EdTribune VA - Virginia Education Data

Petersburg's Chronic Absence Rate Rose Each Year From 2019-20 to 2022-23

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Every year from 2019-20 through 2022-23, Petersburg City^↗ Schools reported a higher chronic absenteeism rate than the year before.

The rate rose from 28.2% in 2019-20 to 32.7% in 2020-21, 38.8% in 2021-22 and 43.1% in 2022-23, according to the rates published by the Virginia Department of Education.

In 2022-23, that rate covered 1,663 chronically absent students.

The trajectory against the state

Virginia's statewide chronic absenteeism rate fell from 20.1% to 19.3% between 2021-22 and 2022-23. Petersburg moved in the opposite direction, adding 4.3 percentage points in the same period.

The gap between Petersburg and the statewide rate widened from 16.4 points in 2019-20 to 23.8 points in 2022-23.

Inside the schools

All six Petersburg schools in the state's 2022-23 school-level data exceeded the statewide rate of 19.3%. Vernon Johns Middle led at 51.4%, followed by Petersburg High at 47.9% and Pleasants Lane Elementary at 46.1%.

Walnut Hill Elementary had the lowest rate among those six schools, at 27.5%, 8.2 points above the statewide rate.

Nine divisions with consecutive rate increases

Among 130 divisions with complete four-year rate histories and unchanged identities, Petersburg was one of 9 whose published chronic absenteeism rate rose in every annual comparison. The comparison excludes Alleghany Highlands^↗, whose reused identity spans a combination of separate school systems, and Covington's missing ending-year row. It describes the 2019-20 through 2022-23 window, rather than a continuing trend through the present.

Manassas Park City^↗ recorded the steepest total climb, rising 20.1 points to reach 33.2%. Petersburg's 14.9-point climb was second largest among those divisions with consecutive increases. Portsmouth City^↗ reached 30.5% after climbing 13.1 points.

The data identify a pattern of consecutive increases, but they do not identify why those divisions worsened.

Two different populations

The published attendance rate does not establish the causes of the increase or its effects on instruction. Its attendance-population denominator is not published in these files.

Petersburg's chronically absent count rose from 1,064 in 2019-20 to 1,663 in 2022-23, while its fall enrollment rose from 4,211 to 4,272. Fall membership is a separate measure; it is not the denominator for the published chronic absence rate. The school counts are also kept at their own reporting grain and are not added together to replace the published division count.

Correction (October 3, 2026; clarified October 29): Earlier versions calculated attendance rates using a separate fall enrollment total and treated suppressed values as zero when assembling statewide counts. This article now uses VDOE's published State, division and school rates and counts at their respective reporting grains. Petersburg's consecutive increases remain supported. The October 29 review makes the complete-history comparison population and historical endpoint explicit and keeps fall membership separate from the unpublished attendance denominator.

Source: Virginia Department of Education chronic absenteeism and enrollment files; figures cover the 2019-20 through 2022-23 school years.

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

118 Virginia Divisions Had Higher Chronic Absence in 2022-23 Than in 2019-20

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT

This historical comparison examines Virginia's published chronic-absenteeism data for four school years, from 2019-20 through 2022-23. Among the 130 divisions that can be compared at both ends of that window, only 12 had a 2022-23 rate at or below their 2019-20 rate.

The other 118 divisions were above the baseline. Put another way, 9.2% had returned to or improved on that first available rate.

The student distribution makes the contrast sharper. The 12 divisions at or below baseline enrolled 35,285 students in 2022-23, 2.8% of the separately published statewide fall-membership total. That group includes Radford City^↗ and Giles County^↗, whose reported enrollment changed substantially during the window.

Radford City and Giles County reported enrollment increases of 125% and 45%, respectively, between the endpoints. Those are changes in fall membership, rather than the attendance denominators. They caution against reading a lower published absence rate as a pure measure of changed attendance behavior; the records do not quantify how much each factor contributed.

What “recovery” can and cannot mean here

“At or below baseline” is a narrow endpoint test comparing the rates the Virginia Department of Education published for each division. The starting year is the first in this historical window; it is not treated as a benchmark of normal attendance. No claim is made about subsequent years. Alleghany Highlands^↗ is excluded because its reused division identity spans the combination of previously separate school systems. Its earlier predecessor row and later combined row describe different populations.

Among the 12 divisions at or below baseline:

Lee County^↗ moved from 21.2% to 12.4%, an 8.8-point reduction, the largest in the group.
Wise County^↗ moved from 13.9% to 10.2%, a 3.7-point reduction.
Louisa County^↗ moved from 9.5% to 8.0%, a 1.5-point reduction.

Radford City meets the endpoint test, but its reported reduction needs a different reading. Its published rate did fall, from 12.4% in 2019-20 to 8.0% in 2022-23. Over the same period the number of chronically absent students in the division rose from 199 to 287. Radford City Virtual, with a published chronic-absenteeism rate of 0.3%, first appears in these absence files in 2022-23, the same year the division's enrollment reached 3,690 students, up from 1,642 in 2019-20.

Each of the four Radford schools reported at both endpoints had a higher published rate at the end: Belle Heth Elementary went from 7.0% to 13.8%, John N. Dalton Intermediate from 14.1% to 22.9%, McHarg Elementary from 10.2% to 19.4%, and Radford High from 18.3% to 20.4%.

These observations identify a reporting-roster change alongside a lower division rate and higher rates at the schools present at both endpoints. They do not isolate the virtual school's effect on the division percentage. An attendance denominator for a combined rate excluding that school is not published in these files.

The typical division remained well above baseline

The median division's chronic-absenteeism rate increased about 8 percentage points from 2019-20 to 2022-23. Forty-seven divisions recorded increases from five through 10 points.

Among the 118 divisions above baseline, the average gap was 9.2 points and the median gap was 8.5 points.

The four largest increases were:

Colonial Beach^↗: 8.0% to 30.1%, up 22.1 points.
Manassas Park City^↗: 13.1% to 33.2%, up 20.1 points.
Fluvanna County^↗: 17.7% to 37.1%, up 19.4 points.
Rockbridge County^↗: 9.8% to 27.8%, up 18.0 points.

Large divisions carry much of the student impact

Fairfax County^↗, the largest division in the comparison, enrolled 180,130 students in 2022-23. Its chronic-absenteeism rate rose from 9.6% to 17.1%, a 7.5-point increase; 30,123 students were chronically absent in the later year.

Prince William County^↗ moved from 14.0% to 20.0%, up 6.0 points, among 91,180 students. Loudoun County^↗ moved from 9.6% to 18.8%, up 9.2 points, among 82,083 students.

Fairfax and Loudoun were at their highest rates of the four published years in 2022-23. Prince William was not: its rate had been 21.0% in 2021-22.

Across all comparable divisions, 48 of 130, or 36.9%, were at a four-year high in 2022-23.

The statewide picture

Statewide, the department's published rate fell from 20.1% in 2021-22 to 19.3% in 2022-23. That 0.8-point decline is a reduction in the published rate, but the later rate remained 7.5 points above the 11.8% statewide rate in 2019-20.

The state's files establish each division's counts and rates and every four-year high used here. They do not separate changes in attendance behavior from changes in enrollment, school calendars, reporting or other conditions, so this analysis does not assign a cause to any division's increase or decrease.

Correction, July 28, 2026; clarified October 29: An earlier version presented Radford City as a straightforward attendance improvement. Its lower published division rate coincided with a changed reporting roster, while the division count rose and the four schools reported at both endpoints had higher rates. The data do not quantify how much of the division-rate change came from the virtual-school roster or from attendance behavior. This revision removes the earlier causal attribution and the implied counterfactual excluding that school. The student share now uses the separately published statewide fall-membership total, and the historical window is explicit.

Source note: The analysis uses chronic-absenteeism reports and enrollment records published by the Virginia Department of Education.

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

43 Virginia Divisions Were at Enrollment Lows in 2024-25

Fri, 15 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Virginia Beach City Public Schools^↗ reported 64,823 students in 2024-25, its lowest count in the available annual records from 2002-03 through 2024-25. It was the largest division at that historical low. At the other end of the list, Charles City County Public Schools^↗ reported 523 students.

Across a fixed group of 130 comparable division histories, 43 ended the period below every earlier recorded count. Together they enrolled 262,343 students, or 20.8% of the published statewide total of 1,261,670. The historical cutoff is 2024-25; these figures do not describe live enrollment today.

The comparison uses a full historical record

The 2024-25 snapshot contains 131 school divisions. The long-run comparison uses 130 with complete, comparable histories across 23 annual observations. State-operated programs are outside the division count, while their students remain in the statewide enrollment total.

Alleghany Highlands Public Schools^↗ is excluded from the unchanged-identity comparison. The district's own merger history describes the combination of previously separate systems. Earlier rows for a predecessor cannot be treated as observations of the same combined student population.

Within the fixed group, 18 divisions ended at their recorded maximum and 69 between their minimum and maximum. The count depends on the period examined: restricting the same divisions to 2019-20 through 2024-25 produces 47 ending minima. The headline count uses the full longer record.

Returning to a low is different from reaching it for the first time

All 43 divisions set a count below every prior observation in 2024-25. Twelve had not been at their then-recorded minimum in 2023-24. The other 31 had also ended that preceding year at a running minimum.

Every one of those twelve had set an earlier record low within the available history. Calling 2024-25 their first-ever low would therefore be wrong. Bedford County Public Schools^↗, with 8,932 students, and Campbell County Public Schools^↗, with 7,780, were among the twelve returning to that status after an intervening increase.

That distinction also prevents “two years at a low” from being read as two years with an unchanged headcount. A division can set a lower floor in successive years.

Large student counts and large percentage declines

The three largest divisions at their recorded lows were Virginia Beach, Norfolk City Public Schools^↗, with 26,832 students, and Newport News City Public Schools^↗, with 25,933.

The deepest percentage decline among those 43 divisions was in Brunswick County Public Schools^↗. Its count fell from a peak of 2,477 to 1,369, or 44.7%. Charles City was 43.0% below its peak, Buchanan County Public Schools^↗ 42.5%, and Mathews County Public Schools^↗ 39.5%.

Those percentages use each division's own highest reported count in the full period. The peak years differ. They do not describe a common starting year, a number of families leaving, or a measured cause of the decline.

Virginia Beach's path had interruptions

Virginia Beach was the fourth-largest division in the 2024-25 snapshot. Its peak was 76,297 students in 2003-04. The later count was 11,474 lower, a 15.0% decline.

Enrollment fell in 17 of the 22 annual transitions and rose in five. The long-run decline was substantial, but it was not an uninterrupted annual streak. That differs from Norfolk's 22 consecutive declines across the same available history.

The enrollment tables do not identify how much of these changes came from births, residential moves, school-sector choices or reporting changes. They also do not measure the condition, capacity or operating costs of individual buildings. A historical enrollment minimum alone cannot establish a need to close a particular school.

The other end of the distribution

The 18 record-high divisions include Chesterfield County Public Schools^↗, with 64,254 students, Stafford County Public Schools^↗, with 31,992, and Alexandria City Public Schools^↗, with 16,613. They were the largest members of that group.

A statewide total cannot stand in for these different local trajectories. The comparison establishes where those histories ended; explaining their different paths requires evidence beyond these totals.

Figures come from the Virginia Department of Education's Fall Membership records. Historical comparisons run from 2002-03 through 2024-25, using the same 130 comparable division identities. The merger exclusion remains separate from the latest-year division census. Student shares use the published statewide total, including state-operated programs.

Correction (October 28, 2026): This revision corrects the description of twelve divisions as reaching a low for the first time: all had earlier record lows. It clarifies the historical window, fixed comparison population and difference between an annual streak and a long-run decline. Unsupported outside figures, causal explanations, forecasts and claims that school consolidation is inevitable are removed. The count of 43 comparable divisions at their historical minima is unchanged.

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

Virginia Enrollment Had No Majority Racial or Ethnic Group in 2024-25

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

White students represented 43.4% of Virginia's 1,261,670 public school students in 2024-25, the largest reported racial or ethnic group. No single group made up half of enrollment.

The statewide figures describe very different local student bodies. At Colonial Heights City Public Schools^↗, the reported White share moved from 72.4% in 2010-11 to 44.6% in 2024-25. Waynesboro City Public Schools^↗ went from 68.3% to 45.8% over the same span.

The first below-half statewide White share in the records from 2002-03 through 2024-25 came in 2016-17: 49.7%, following 50.5% the year before. The reported share stayed below half through the article's historical cutoff. These are dated enrollment counts, not a description of live enrollment today.

Different changes across reported groups

The reported White count fell by 131,067 students, or 19.3%, from 2010-11 to 2024-25. Hispanic enrollment increased by 111,188; the count of students reported as multiracial increased by 37,429; and Asian enrollment increased by 24,952. The reported Black count fell by 32,833.

Those net changes do not track individual students changing schools or categories. They also do not establish how births, residential moves, immigration or enrollment outside public schools contributed to the counts.

By 2024-25, Hispanic students represented 20.1% of statewide enrollment, multiracial students 7.0%, Asian students 7.8% and Black students 21.3%. The gap between the reported Black and Hispanic counts narrowed from 158,871 in 2010-11 to 14,850 in 2024-25. The historical change does not establish when, or whether, the groups' counts will cross.

Eighteen divisions began above half and ended below

Among 130 ordinary school divisions with comparable identities at both endpoints, 18 had a reported White share above half in 2010-11 and below half in 2024-25. This comparison excludes Alleghany Highlands^↗ because its identity spans a merger, and does not count state-operated programs as school divisions. It compares endpoints, without assuming every division followed an uninterrupted path.

Classification uses unrounded counts. Dinwiddie County Public Schools^↗ reported 2,074 White students out of 4,149 students in 2024-25, a 49.99% share. Rounding that share to one decimal prints 50.0%, but the count still falls below half. The distinction explains why Dinwiddie belongs in the endpoint group.

Across the full 2024-25 population of 131 ordinary school divisions, 54 had a reported White share below half, or 41.2%. The paired historical comparison and that single-year snapshot have different denominators.

The half-share cutoff here describes composition; it does not establish a division's funding or the services any student needs. Race and ethnicity counts alone do not show English proficiency or a student's individual service needs.

Figures come from the Virginia Department of Education's Fall Membership records. Shares divide by the all-student enrollment total. Historical category gaps remain unassigned; counts are not rescaled to make them sum to the total. The figures compare annual reported enrollment, not a fixed group of children followed over time.

Correction (October 3, 2026): An earlier version of this article relied on state race counts for 2010-11 through 2015-16 that counted multiracial students as Hispanic as well and understated every other group, and on 2022-23 through 2024-25 statewide totals that left out two state-operated programs. On the corrected data, Virginia's statewide white share first fell below 50% in 2016-17, not 2013-14, and has fallen every year since; the earlier version's 2016-17 uptick does not appear in the corrected series. Eighteen divisions flipped from majority-white to majority-minority, not 13, and Virginia lost 131,067 white students since 2010-11, not 106,226. The Hispanic, multiracial, Asian and Black changes, the division figures for 2010-11, and the list of the least-white divisions have been corrected as well.

Update (October 28, 2026): This revision removes unsupported demographic causes, outside numerical claims and the extrapolation of a future crossover. Historical division tallies now consistently exclude state-operated programs. The earlier correction notice and the verified 18-division endpoint finding are retained.

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

34 Virginia Divisions Enrolled More Students Than in 2019-20

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

By 2024-25, 34 of Virginia's 130 comparable school divisions enrolled more students than in 2019-20. That was 26.2% of the comparison group. Statewide enrollment remained 36,413 students below its earlier peak, so the division gains sat alongside a much broader shortfall.

Stafford County Public Schools^↗ added 1,872 students over that span, reaching 31,992, its highest count in the record from 2002-03 through 2024-25. Chesterfield County Public Schools^↗ gained 1,585. Their gains show why a statewide decline cannot describe every division's path.

Norfolk City Public Schools^↗ had 3,005 fewer students than in 2019-20. There, enrollment and buildings had become an explicit governance dispute. A published city consolidation resolution warned that delays could lead to tighter council control over school appropriations. The school board subsequently approved a closing plan, WHRO reported.

A partial statewide rebound

Virginia's statewide count fell by 45,331 between 2019-20 and 2020-21. By 2024-25 it stood 8,918 above the later count, recouping 19.7% of that decline. This is a comparison of enrollment snapshots; it does not identify the same children leaving and returning.

The path included a gain of 11,635 students in 2022-23, followed by declines of 1,343 and 592. The 2024-25 statewide total was 1,261,670. The records establish when those changes occurred, but do not establish how much came from births, migration or families switching school sectors.

The 2019-20 baseline here follows VDOE's division-level count. Its school-level file differs that year, and the retained records do not explain the discrepancy. The historical comparison ends in 2024-25 and makes no claim about live enrollment today.

Different paths within the same comparison

The division comparison includes ordinary school divisions present at both endpoints. It excludes Alleghany Highlands^↗, whose reused division identity spans its merger with Covington City. State-operated programs remain in the statewide total but are outside the division comparison.

Of the 130 comparable divisions, 96 were below their 2019-20 counts in 2024-25. The chart separates the largest absolute gains and losses; a division's headcount change and its percentage change answer different questions.

Fairfax County Public Schools^↗ had the largest absolute shortfall in that group: 8,371 students, from 188,930 to 180,559. The next largest shortfalls were Virginia Beach City Public Schools^↗, 3,883; Richmond City Public Schools^↗, 3,785; Norfolk, 3,005; and Newport News City Public Schools^↗, 2,722.

The baseline also matters. Using 2018-19 instead of 2019-20, 41 of the same 130 divisions were at or above their earlier count. Virginia's statewide total remained below either baseline. These records do not track local household moves or establish why families entered or left a division.

Norfolk's board faced a concrete choice about buildings despite the gains elsewhere. Before its closing-plan vote, Chair Sarah DiCalogero said, according to WHRO: "But our kids are resilient, and they will bounce back quicker than the adults."

Enrollment figures come from the Virginia Department of Education's Fall Membership records. They are headcounts across the published grades, including pre-kindergarten.

Correction (October 3, 2026): An earlier version of this article relied on state files that left two state-operated programs out of the 2022-23 through 2024-25 statewide totals and, for 2010-11, counted multiracial students as Hispanic as well while understating every other group. On the corrected data, Virginia has recovered 19.7% of its pandemic enrollment loss, not 19.3%, and the headline has been updated from 19% to 20%. White students fell below 50% of enrollment in 2016-17, not 2013-14, and Hispanic students, not multiracial students, are the fastest-growing group since 2010-11. The 2019-20 peak, the year-to-year changes, the division recovery count and the race figures have been corrected, and several outside figures that could not be matched to their cited sources were removed or re-sourced.

Update (October 28, 2026): This revision removes unsupported explanations, outside numerical claims and a demographic forecast. The comparison now emphasizes the differing division paths and retains the corrected enrollment figures and the earlier correction notice.

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

Virginia Kept Part of Its Enrollment Rebound in 2024-25

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT

In this series: Virginia 2024-25 Enrollment.

Virginia retained part of its enrollment rebound in 2024-25, but the count fell again. Public schools enrolled 1,261,670 students, down 592 from the year before and 36,413 below the 2019-20 peak. The net gain since 2020-21 equaled 19.7% of the preceding year's decline.

The statewide pattern reached places with very different histories. Norfolk City Public Schools^↗ enrolled 26,832 students in 2024-25, compared with 36,745 in 2002-03. Fairfax County Public Schools^↗ had 8,371 fewer students than at its 2019-20 peak.

The statewide gain of 11,635 students in 2022-23 was followed by declines in both subsequent reporting years. Enrollment fell in three of the four annual transitions ending in 2024-25. The counts alone do not establish how births, migration or movement between public and other schools contributed to the change.

Most comparable divisions remained below their earlier counts

Of 130 school divisions with comparable totals in both 2019-20 and 2024-25, 96 enrolled fewer students at the later count. That is 73.8% of the comparison group. The comparison excludes Alleghany Highlands^↗ because its earlier division identity predates the merger with Covington City.

Norfolk's decline stretched across every adjacent year in the panel: 22 consecutive annual declines across 23 reporting years, from 2002-03 through 2024-25. Its enrollment fell 27.0% over that span. Across the full-history, nonmerged division panel, 43 divisions were at their lowest count in those records. These are historical-panel lows, not claims about every year since a division opened.

A changing student body

White students represented 43.4% of statewide enrollment in 2024-25; Hispanic students represented 20.1%. The chart uses the statewide enrollment total as its denominator and keeps the mutually exclusive race and ethnicity categories together.

English learner enrollment is a separate, overlapping classification. The count rose from 172,913 in 2022-23 to 187,596 in 2024-25, an 8.5% increase. English learners represented 14.9% of the statewide total at the later count. That change does not establish whether division staffing or budgets kept pace.

Smaller kindergarten classes than senior classes

Virginia counted 84,376 kindergartners and 97,429 students in twelfth grade in 2024-25, or 86.6 kindergartners per hundred seniors. Twelfth grade exceeded kindergarten across eight consecutive reporting years ending in 2024-25.

Those counts describe different groups of children. They do not predict the number of students who will enter or finish high school later. This historical overview follows the enrollment record through 2024-25; it does not describe live enrollment in the current school year.

Counts come from the Virginia Department of Education's Fall Membership records. Statewide totals include state-operated programs; division comparisons exclude them. The 2019-20 baseline uses the department's division-level count, which differs from its school-level file.

Correction, October 28, 2026: This article retains the corrected statewide and race counts from its earlier revision. It now removes unsupported explanations for enrollment changes and comparisons with private-school participation, and limits historical and grade comparisons to what the enrollment records establish.

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