While the closure undeniably helped keep students, families and staff physically safe, it also had a devastating impact on young people’s academic and social-emotional growth. For example, K-2 literacy rates dropped by nearly 25 percentage points.

The harm of this once-in-a-century pandemic required a once-in-a-century response. Simply returning to normal with the hope of a quick recovery was not going to work — and, frankly, would have been irresponsible. 

We decided to do something very simple, but surprisingly revolutionary: make the school year longer. Last year, we piloted a 200-day school year, rather than the traditional 180 days, at two elementary schools: Fairfield Court and Cardinal. The program was entirely opt-in: More than 90% of families and 70% of teachers at both schools voted in favor of joining the pilot; all were all given the option of moving to a school with a traditional calendar. While we heard some concerns, of course, nearly all agreed that it was worth trying. Mixed in with the nerves, we even heard a lot of excitement. Parents, for instance, were glad to have four extra weeks of free, safe and structured learning time. Teachers were eager to keep their students on track and were excited about the extra pay: a 10% increase in salary and an automatic $10,000 bonus.  

Students at these schools started classes in July 2023 and finished with the rest of the district in May. It was a financial investment, but more importantly, it was an investment of time – a resource that we hadn’t truly tapped before. The schools used that time to build relationships with families, dive into literacy instruction and enrich the curriculum with field trips and enrichment activities. Our family liaisons held pop-up events, sent text messages and went door to door to speak with parents and caregivers, stressing the importance of daily attendance and offering solutions, such as door-to-door transportation, when there were barriers to regular attendance. Local businesses, nonprofits and donors also stepped up to provide students with everything from school supplies and meals to washer-dryers and haircuts at school. By the time the traditional school calendar began in late August, the 200-day schools were rocking and rolling — and the momentum didn’t stop. 

These two schools had remarkable results. Fairfield Court Elementary’s jumped from 61% to 82% in just one year. It now has the seventh-highest early literacy scores out of 26 elementary schools in the district, despite having the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students (97%). Cardinal Elementary, where over 80% of students are recent immigrants, also saw gains, going from 53% to 58% proficient. To top it all off, despite the longer year, attendance at these schools .

Given these results, our district board and administration decided to expand the pilot to two more schools: Woodville Elementary, which is just down the road from Fairfield, and Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary, whose zone borders Cardinal’s. A majority of families and staff at both schools voted to participate in the pilot, and Bloomberg Philanthropies signed on to fund the expansion. On July 22, students at all four schools — nearly 2,000 (8%) of the district’s total enrollment — headed back to school for the 2024-25 year. 

The impetus for RPS200 was the pandemic, but the need for it goes much deeper. For decades, if not centuries, Virginia has created systemic barriers to education, particularly for Black students. In the early part of the 19th century, the General Assembly – which we can see from our office windows – made it illegal for enslaved and free Africans to gather to learn to read or write, “either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext.” In 1959, Prince Edward County shuttered its entire school system for five years rather than integrate its classrooms. And over the last 50 years, the district itself has seen constant disinvestment as white Richmonders left the city and its public schools.

The inequities are further compounded by Virginia’s antiquated school funding formula, which disadvantages areas like Richmond that have high levels of concentrated poverty. The General Assembly’s own recently said the state is underfunding K-12 schools by about $3 billion. 

Students deserve more than the legacy of inequity; they deserve a future of opportunity and excellence. That’s why the 200-day calendar is not just an investment of time, but an opportunity. It’s designed to help Richmond’s students rebound from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic — but it’s also about honoring those who have fought for the right to learn. 

At Richmond Public Schools, our motto is to “Teach, Lead and Serve With Love.” We can’t think of any better way to show our young people how much we love them than by giving them a leg up in their education. RPS200 is helping us do exactly that.

Dozens of seats remained empty when classrooms fully reopened in the 2021-22 school year. Approaches to absenteeism in the 22,000-student district were failing, and administrators were forced to rethink how they could bring children back to school. 

The job was assigned to Shadae Harris, the district’s chief engagement officer. Harris and other staff decided to prioritize family engagement instead of using punitive measures — such as referrals to the juvenile justice system — to increase attendance.

“In order to really improve student attendance, we had to make sure that we were designing a system of engagement that really put families at the center,” Harris said.

Lack of family engagement is a national issue, as nearly 1 in 4 students are chronically absent. found that many parents don’t think chronic absenteeism is a problem and are unaware of how often their child misses class.

The poll, released in May by the National Parents Union, surveyed roughly 1,500 public school parents around the U.S.

“They haven’t been told [chronic absenteeism] is a problem,” said Keri Rodrigues, the organization’s co-founder. “They haven’t really defined what it is for them, so they’re not seeing that this is a major issue.”

The poll, which was distributed to parents in March, showed that 16% of respondents had a child who missed six to 10 days of school during the 2023-24 school year. Another 4% said their child missed 10 to 15 days, and 3% said their child missed more than 15 days.

Still, 82% of parents said they were unsure about whether chronic absenteeism existed at their child’s school or didn’t think it was widespread.

Students are considered chronically absent when they miss at least 10% of school, or roughly 18 days in most districts, according to , a national nonprofit. These students are more at risk for struggling academically, falling into poverty or dropping out of high school.

Only 8% of parents surveyed said they thought their child was absent more often than most students. Harris said the Richmond district found out through its own research and discussions with families that not only were parents unaware of what chronic absenteeism was, they didn’t think their children were skipping class as much as they actually were.

“You may have a family who thinks they’ve only missed three days, but it’s actually 13,” Harris said.

In response, Harris helped launch several family engagement initiatives in the 2021-22 school year. The district created an on its website, and teachers began to make home visits to families who had absent children. So far, the district has completed more than 40,000 home visits.

Through “that building of trust, that prioritizing of relationships, we were finding out what the root causes were,” Harris said. “There were issues around health, medical needs, transportation and housing

When Richmond staff found that several families were living in motels because they couldn’t afford rental deposits, they secured grant funding to help those students get stable housing. More than 130 families have been moved to better accommodations through this program, Harris said.

The district deployed school officials to work with parents distrustful of the school system, calling them family liaisons instead of attendance officers, which implied discipline instead of cooperation. Harris created a “We Love You Here” campaign to help families feel supported instead of judged for their children’s absences. 

If the district did need to get law enforcement involved because a student’s attendance failed to improve, court hearings were held in one of Richmond’s middle schools instead of at the courthouse. 

Harris said the middle school’s gym would be filled with booths, each one offering a community resource or service.

“Instead of ordering [the families] to do something more punitive, [the judge] orders them to see every single service,” Harris said. “So they have a little card and they visit the service. Then the judge will give them a certain amount of days to improve attendance.”

The most common reason for absences in the parents’ union poll was physical illness, followed by medical or dental appointments, weather, family emergencies and vacation. When asked why they think students are chronically absent, nearly 30% of respondents said it’s because they don’t want to attend school. About 26% attributed absences to illness and 21% to parents who don’t care.

More than half of respondents — 56% — said parents should face legal consequences if their child misses too much school without an approved reason. But Rodrigues said people need to focus more on why students don’t want to come to school.

“The only thing that’s going to solve their problem in a meaningful way is getting to the reason why kids don’t want to be in the classroom,” she said. “Part of that is because of the mental health crisis and social anxiety. The other piece is that we don’t present compelling reasons for them to actually want to be there and create that [fear] that they’re going to miss something if they don’t show up every single day.”

In the poll, 11% of parents said making school more engaging or fun would improve attendance, while 8% said children should be given incentives for showing up and 6% said schools need to engage with parents more.

Harris said she feels family engagement was the biggest reason why Richmond Public Schools has improved its chronic absenteeism rate, which was at 25% during the 2022-23 school year and at the end of 2023-24 had dropped to 19%.

“If you prioritize your relationships with families and students, you’ll actually get the information you need to find out, like, what are the things that motivate them? What are the things that give them joy?” Harris said. “Families actually already know. We just have to be quiet and listen to them and help shift some of the power to them. Because they’re the experts of their children.”