HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Two Henrico County public schools are now fully accredited-according to recently released school accreditation data from the Virginia Department of Education.  

The VDOE finalized the new accreditation data for the 2023-2024 school year on Sept. 28. Data from the VDOE’s website indicates that there are two different types of accreditation status: accredited and accredited with conditions.  

Elko Middle School and Montrose Elementary School — which were rated as accredited with conditions for the 2022-2023 academic school year — have now been relabeled as accredited.  However, Varina High School received a downgrade in its accreditation and is now accredited with conditions.

The ratings for accreditation are based on each school’s academic performance, achievement gaps between student groups, student engagement, chronic absenteeism and school dropout rates, among other factors. A school’s accreditation status can directly affect how it runs, and its student enrollment.

Varina was the only high school in Henrico County that was labeled accredited with conditions this year. Henrico Virtual Academy, which includes students from kindergarten all the way up to the 12^th grade, was also labeled as accredited with conditions. A total of 11 (16%) public schools across Henrico County were labeled as accredited with conditions for the 2023-24 year.

Zooming out

In Chesterfield County, four out of the 67 schools in the district are labeled “accredited with conditions”.  Carver College and Career Academy, Chesterfield Virtual High School, Falling Creek Middle and Meadowbrook High are not fully accredited. 

The VDOE data indicates that 1,614 (89%) of the public schools in the state are fully accredited. The number of schools in Virginia labeled as accredited with conditions totals 206.

More information about the accreditation process can be found online with the Virginia Department of Education.