Virginia Student Attendance and Chronic Absence

Virginia’s 2024–25 Chronic Absenteeism Rate Is 14.8%

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) currently reports a statewide chronic absenteeism rate of 14.8% for 2024–25 after attendance recovery is incorporated. VDOE’s current three-year presentation shows 20.0% in 2022–23, 15.7% in 2023–24 with attendance recovery, and 14.8% in 2024–25 with attendance recovery. That is a 5.2-percentage-point decline over two years, or 26% relative to the 2022–23 rate.

The Virginia School Quality Profiles provide a second view of the same attendance problem through student counts. For 2024–25, the statewide profile places 182,260 students in the “10% or Above” absence category and 1,056,926 below 10%. The count-based share is about 14.7%, which is one-tenth of a point below VDOE’s 14.8% headline figure. The reporting difference is addressed below rather than forcing the two displays into a single number.

The Statewide Rate Has Fallen for Two Consecutive Years

Virginia’s chronic absenteeism rate rose sharply after the pandemic. An earlier VDOE statewide series placed the rate at 10.6% in 2018–19 and 20.1% in 2021–22. VDOE later omitted 2019–20 and 2020–21 from that comparison because the COVID-19 period limited year-to-year comparability.

For the most recent three school years, VDOE now presents attendance recovery separately. That distinction matters because flexible instructional time can change whether a student remains above the chronic-absence threshold.

VDOE reports that the two-year improvement corresponded with 2,098,669 fewer absent days among K–12 students and 14,690,683 additional hours of instruction. The recovery-adjusted 2024–25 rate is still above the 10.6% pre-pandemic reference from 2018–19, so Virginia has not returned to that earlier level.

Attendance Recovery Changes the 2024–25 Measure

Virginia’s latest rate cannot be interpreted only as a count of ordinary school-day absences. VDOE guidance states that 2024–25 chronic absenteeism data incorporate flexible instructional hours used for attendance recovery. Under the guidance used for that year, a student could earn one day of attendance back for every three hours of recovery time, up to 15 days.

Virginia Uses a 10% Membership Threshold

VDOE defines a student as chronically absent when days absent equal or exceed 10% of the student’s total days in membership. The reason for the missed time does not remove it from the general chronic-absence definition: VDOE’s attendance guidance includes excused absences, unexcused absences, and suspensions.

For a 180-day school year, 10% is about 18 days, or roughly two to three days per month. The 18-day figure is an example for a full 180-day year, not a separate legal threshold for every student. A student with 150 days in membership reaches 10% at 15 absent days; a student with 100 days in membership reaches it at 10.

The Number Above the 10% Threshold Fell by More Than 66,000

Virginia School Quality Profiles publish statewide counts for students below 10% and at or above 10%. The number in the higher-absence category fell from 248,663 in 2022–23 to 182,260 in 2024–25, a decrease of 66,403 students.

Chronic Absence Remains Concentrated in Several Student Groups

The statewide average masks wide differences among student groups. The rates in the next table are calculated from the 2024–25 “Below 10%” and “10% or Above” counts published in the Virginia School Quality Profiles. They are derived shares, not separately published VDOE subgroup rates.

Among the groups displayed, homeless students had the highest calculated share at 43.2%. Economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities were also above 20%. These differences describe the distribution in the state data; the counts alone do not establish why one group has a higher rate than another.

Improvement Reached Every Region, but High School Remains a Pressure Point

Grades 9–12 Remain Above the Statewide Rate

Virginia’s 2025 annual report says every grade span improved in 2024–25. The largest decrease occurred in grades K–2, with almost 3,500 more early-elementary students attending more regularly than in the prior school year. Even after the statewide decline, 18.6% of students in grades 9–12 were still chronically absent.

All Eight Superintendent’s Regions Improved

All eight Virginia Superintendent’s Regions recorded improvement in 2024–25 when division results were combined, and 74% of school divisions reduced chronic absenteeism from the prior year. Over the two-year period reported by VDOE, Title I schools posted a 29.7% reduction, compared with 24.3% for non-Title I schools.

Chronically Absent Students Had Lower 2023–24 SOL Performance

VDOE’s 2023–24 results show a clear performance gap between chronically absent students and students who attended more regularly. The reported differences were measured in percentage points, not as a claim that absence alone caused the entire gap.

Chronic Absence and Virginia’s Nonattendance Process Are Separate Measures

Chronic absenteeism is an attendance-data measure based on the share of enrolled days missed. Virginia’s truancy and nonattendance process focuses on different conditions, including whether an absence is unexcused and whether the parent is aware of and supports the absence.

An individual student’s official attendance record, absence classification, recovery credit, and any school response depend on the records and rules applied by the student’s school division.