Richmond City
Nearly Half of Virginia's Students Identified as Homeless Were Chronically Absent in 2022-23
Virginia reported that 49.1% of its students identified as homeless were chronically absent in 2022-23, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. That is 7,687 students, according to the Vi...
Richmond's Enrollment Decline Is Real, But VAVA Blurs the Baseline
Richmond City still has fewer students in the state fall-membership file than it did two decades ago: 26,136 in 2003 and 21,427 in 2025, a loss of 4,709 students, or 18.0%.
Nearly One in Four Richmond Students Drops Out. At One School, It's Nearly Half.
Correction (2026-07-23): An earlier version of this article said Richmond stayed at the bottom of all 132 divisions every year. Virginia had 130 divisions reporting 2023 data, and Richmond ranked lowe...
One in Five Virginia Students Is Now Hispanic
In Manassas Park, 70.7% of students are Hispanic. White enrollment has fallen to 9.8%, down from 19.8% in 2016-17. Two hours south in the Shenandoah Valley, Harrisonburg crossed the majority-Hispanic ...
Three in Four Virginia Divisions Never Recovered from COVID
Stafford County added 1,872 students between 2020 and 2025. It is one of 34 Virginia school divisions, out of 130 after reconciling the Alleghany/Covington merger, that can say enrollment has returned...
Virginia's 20% Recovery
For 15 consecutive years, Virginia's public schools grew. Enrollment rose in every school year from 2003-04 through 2017-18, climbing by 116,921 students from its 2002-03 level, driven by Northern Vir...