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Richmond City · Virginia

Richmond, VA public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Richmond City Public Schools — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Richmond City Public Schools is the primary public district for Richmond, VA. It enrolls 21,130 students in 53 schools with 1,937 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $15,004 per pupil, 13% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
21,130NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
53Operating school count
Students per teacher
10.9Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$15,004Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Richmond

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
44.9%
$189,047,000
State revenue
36.8%
$155,095,000
Federal revenue
18.3%
$77,046,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Richmond property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 53 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Richmond numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

$15,004 per pupil is 13% below the $17,320 metro median; only 33% of tracked districts spend less. Instruction takes 53 cents of each dollar — $7,961 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 44.9% local, 36.8% state — so both the local tax base and the VA aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 18.3% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

21,130 students across 53 schools averages 399 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). That is a small-building district; neighbourhood elementary schools dominate the count. Staffing is generous: 10.9 students per FTE teacher versus the 15.2 median, 4.3 fewer students per teacher.

Worth flagging: a federal share this large means the district is exposed to grant cycles. Title I and pandemic-era relief awards can move the per-pupil figure between survey years without any change in local taxation.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Figures cover Richmond City Public Schools (LEAID 5103240) as one unit, not any single school in Richmond. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Richmond datasets on this site.

Statewide: Virginia cities · Virginia ZIP codes · Virginia sales tax · Virginia counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 5103240. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.