Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Old Dominion
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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.
43 Virginia school divisions hit all-time low enrollment in 2024-25, from Virginia Beach's 64,823 students to Charles City County's 523.
Richmond City's 23.8% dropout rate is nearly five times the state average. George Wythe High had 48.4% of its cohort drop out in 2023.
Virginia's largest school division lost 4.4% of its enrollment since 2020 even as its school-age population increased by 9,000. Where did the families go?
Hampton City graduated 96.4% of its 1,461-student cohort in 2023, outperforming wealthier suburban divisions like Stafford and Chesterfield.
Hispanic enrollment crossed 20% for the first time in 2024-25, adding 59,248 students since 2016-17 while Black enrollment fell. The gap between the two groups shrank to 14,850.
Virginia's Advanced Studies diploma share ranges from 79% in Goochland County to 17% in Giles County, a gap that maps onto wealth and geography.
Five years after the pandemic, 96 of 130 merger-adjusted Virginia school divisions remain below pre-COVID enrollment. The five largest losers account for 45% of the gap.
Virginia still graduates more than 91% of its students, but the 93% pandemic-era peak in 2021 has eroded, with 78 of 130 divisions sliding back.
Norfolk Public Schools has declined every single year since 2003, losing 9,913 students. Now the Navy city is closing nine schools to match a student body that may never come back.
Virginia's public schools crossed the majority-minority threshold in 2016-17. White enrollment has fallen by 131,000 students since 2010-11, and 18 divisions have flipped.
Virginia recovered less than a fifth of students lost to COVID. Five years later, enrollment is still sliding and the forces behind it are structural.
VDOE releases 2024-25 data showing 1,261,670 students statewide, down 36,413 from the 2019-20 peak, with under 20% of pandemic losses recovered.