Filed under Schools & Settling In · 4 min read
Families moving to the Richmond area often start with one question: which schools are good? The honest answer is that it depends on what you are measuring, and the most useful public tool for answering it is the Virginia Department of Education’s School Quality Profiles. This guide explains how to read them without reducing a school to one number.
Where the data comes from
The School Quality Profiles site has a page for every Virginia school division and every school. Each division page lists its schools by level with three columns: accreditation status, performance level and a framework score. Each school page then breaks the picture into tabs: assessments, enrollment, college and career readiness, finance, school environment, teacher quality, federal ESSA reporting and early learning.
Three labels, three meanings
Accreditation status
Accreditation is the state’s baseline judgment. On the current profiles, every school listed in the Richmond City, Henrico County and Chesterfield County summaries shows Fully Accredited. That means accreditation alone will not help you choose between schools in this area.
Performance level
This is where schools are differentiated. The profiles use four levels for schools with enough students to rate: Distinguished, Meets Expectations, Approaching Expectations and Needs Intensive Support. Schools with too few students for a rating are marked Too Small.
Framework score
The framework score is the number behind the performance level. In the Richmond City list, scores range from the high 60s to above 110, which shows how wide the spread is inside one division.
How the three divisions compare
Counting the schools in each division’s summary by performance level gives this picture:
| Division | Schools listed | Distinguished | Meets Expectations | Approaching Expectations | Needs Intensive Support | Too Small |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond City Public Schools | 43 | 9 | 8 | 15 | 9 | 2 |
| Henrico County Public Schools | 67 | 28 | 13 | 18 | 8 | 0 |
| Chesterfield County Public Schools | 65 | 22 | 16 | 13 | 14 | 0 |
Every division has schools at the top and the bottom of the scale. Henrico has the largest number rated Distinguished. Richmond has the largest share in the Approaching Expectations band. Chesterfield has the most schools rated Needs Intensive Support in raw numbers. None of these counts tells you about the specific school your child would attend, which is why the next step matters.
From division to address
- Start with the zone. Use the division’s own school locator for the exact address. The state’s profile site warns that its map results may not reflect division or attendance zone boundaries.
- Open the school’s page, not just the division’s. Compare the assessment results by subject and by student group, not only the overall level.
- Look at the school environment tab. It adds a view of the school beyond test results.
- Check the teacher quality tab. It is reported separately for each school.
- Check the options. In Richmond, Open Enrollment lets families apply to schools outside their zone, without bus service except at one school. See Enrolling Your Child in Richmond Public Schools: Zone Schools, Open Enrollment and Key 2026-27 Dates.
Tip: Visit. A profile is a summary of last year’s data. A school tour, a conversation with the principal and a look at the after-school offerings will tell you things no table can.
Public school is free, but not the only option
Virginia law makes public school free to every school-age child who resides in a division, and requires attendance from the year a child turns 5 by September 30 until age 18. The same law lets families meet that requirement through a private, denominational or parochial school, a qualified tutor or home instruction instead. Families comparing a public school with a private one can use the state profile for the public side of that comparison; private schools are not rated there.
Questions to bring to a school visit
- How large are classes in the grade your child will enter?
- How does the school support students who arrive mid-year from another state?
- What do the assessment results look like for students similar to yours?
- Which electives, languages and after-school programs are offered this year?
- How do families reach teachers, and how often do they hear from them?
The bigger context
Census figures show the three localities differ sharply in ways that shape their schools’ starting points. In the 2020 to 2024 Census survey, 18.2 percent of Richmond city residents lived in poverty, compared with 10.3 percent in Henrico and 7.1 percent in Chesterfield. Bachelor’s degree rates among adults were similar across all three, between 43.8 and 46.5 percent. Read the school data with that context in mind, and compare schools that serve similar communities.
For the wider comparison of the three localities, see Richmond City, Henrico or Chesterfield? How the Three Localities Compare for People Moving In.