RICHMOND, Va. — A top public school official in Virginia’s capital city says the pandemic has “exacerbated” an existing problem with chronic absenteeism.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports about 1 in 5 students in Richmond Public Schools are on track to be chronically absent. That's according to data presented to the city school board on Monday.
Harry Hughes, the district’s chief of schools, said COVID-19 “has exacerbated an existing problem, and made it much worse."
The system has historically struggled with chronic absenteeism, according to the newspaper, with rates in recent years twice the state average.
