Petersburg school officials report modest drop in chronic absenteeism, outline new attendance measures

PETERSBURG, Va. — Petersburg City Public Schools officials reported that the district’s chronic absenteeism rate declined from 39% at the end of the 2023–24 school year to 38% at the end of 2024–25, and outlined a multi-pronged plan aimed at further reductions.

The update Wednesday was delivered by Chief of Staff Dr. Yasmin Gay and followed work the board set earlier to reduce chronic absenteeism. Gay told the school board the division made a slight improvement overall but did not meet the board’s target of a 3% decrease for the year.

The superintendent and Dr. Gay emphasized several data points to explain why the year ended with higher absences in spring than officials had expected: 36 students became chronically absent between March and May; nearly one-third of students who had been counted as chronically absent earlier in the year no longer met membership thresholds because they transferred or left the rolls; and the district’s March–May period accounted for 35.48% of the division’s total absences for the year. District staff reported that 71.58% of missed days in March–May were unexcused.

Gay also pointed to spikes in certain months and school levels. For example, May showed the largest month-by-month share of absences at 14.6%, and suspension days — which the division is analyzing as a contributing factor — were particularly high in October (about 1,170 suspension days), March (about 967) and May (about 1,079), Gay said.

Board members pressed for more granular information during a lengthy question-and-answer period. Board member Hal Miles urged the district to craft policies so students receive instruction while suspended rather than being left without educational access; Miles and others highlighted the need to limit how many days a student can miss without additional intervention.

Board member Takari Tucker and Dr. Gay discussed the need for a historical comparison across three years, noting earlier decreases between 2022–23 and 2023–24 that the board wants to understand and, where successful, replicate. Gay said the attendance task force will do ‘‘asset mapping’’ to identify promising practices from prior years that could be restored or scaled.

The board and staff described specific next steps being implemented for 2025–26: summer training for attendance monitors, registrars and school leaders; hiring an additional data analyst (bringing the team to three) to provide school-level and division-level data support; strengthening school-based attendance teams and principal oversight; and hiring two family liaisons to provide on-the-ground outreach and home-visit capacity.

Gay said the division will pilot family-engagement supports at Pleasant Lane and will work with Virginia State University and the Cameron Foundation on family-engagement strategies shown by research to boost attendance.

Superintendent Dr. Brandy Brown said the district will continue to review PowerSchool data accuracy and conduct “data cleansing” to ensure attendance entries are correct; staff said training for attendance clerks and principals is planned before the new school year.

Board members asked staff to return with more school-level detail, including which schools record the highest suspension totals and whether specific students are repeat offenders. Gay and the superintendent agreed to provide that breakdown to the board.

The board framed next-year actions as a combined strategy of prevention, engagement and accountability: increase student engagement through curricula and activities, strengthen school-level monitoring, and provide targeted family outreach and supports to address the social determinants that drive absences.

For now, the division’s baseline is a 1-point year-over-year improvement and a plan to increase capacity to track and intervene earlier in the school year.

Gay closed by noting summer ‘‘Full Steam Ahead’’ programming had positive responses from participating students and advocated considering that programming beyond summer months to maintain engagement.