Richmond Public Schools reports drop in chronic absenteeism, outlines regional outreach and summer plans

Richmond Public Schools reported to the school board on Monday that chronic absenteeism is down this year and described steps the district will take to sustain and extend those gains.

The update, delivered by staff from the Office of Family and Community Engagement, said chronic absenteeism fell compared with the same point last year and fewer students were chronically absent on day 162 of the school year than at the same point in 2024. Officials credited targeted outreach by family liaisons, greater use of flexible instruction time and school-level interventions for part of the improvement.

District staff said the most recent presentation used data through day 162 and therefore did not include the final days of the school year. Charles Page, director of family and community engagement, highlighted several schools that showed significant year-over-year decreases, including Henry Marsh and Fairfield, and said targeted flexible instruction produced strong gains at schools that focused the approach on students who needed it.

School-level summaries presented by Page and colleagues showed variability across clusters. Staff said smaller schools with small enrollment swings can show large percentage changes based on a handful of students, while larger schools require different outreach approaches. The presentation named Marsh, Fairfield, Swansboro, Oak Grove, MLK, River City, John Marshall and others as examples of schools that saw notable movement in their chronic absenteeism rates.

To sustain gains, the district described a new “regional” model for family liaisons, assigning liaison teams to geographic regions so staff can develop deeper knowledge of local partners and resources rather than traveling across the city. The plan also includes weekly professional development for liaison teams, expanded summer supports tied to summer school and out-of-school-time programs, and a fellowship program that will bring 5–7 fellows from partner universities and RPS alumni to support systems building.

Board members asked about spikes at particular schools. Staff said several causes contributed to increases at specific sites this year, including disruptions such as a local water crisis, weather interruptions, half days and staff turnover. For example, Carver’s increase was discussed in the context of community violence and staff turnover; the district said it would add a dedicated family liaison at Carver five days a week, reintroduce promising local initiatives and partner biweekly with the city’s community engagement office.

Officials also discussed transportation and flexible-instruction-time (FIT) accounting. Staff said FIT can materially change a school’s chronic-absence calculation and committed to providing FIT-adjusted scores to board members. The district will provide additional cluster-level data and follow-ups requested by board members, including more detail on why particular schools saw increases and on bus reliability checks where members raised concerns.

District staff said summer priorities will include professional development for family liaisons, stronger coordination with school leaders and partner organizations, and a community-facing resource map (the district’s “block” through a TNTP platform) that parents and principals can use to locate vetted community services by school and region.

Board members praised the progress but pressed staff for more detail about where disruptions drove increases and how the regional model will be evaluated. Staff pledged to provide the requested FIT-adjusted data and to return with more analysis in coming weeks.