Cohort 1 📍 Region 1

Henrico County focused its community schools work at Tucker High School and Quioccasin Middle School, where improving attendance requires a different approach. Both schools serve immigrant and refugee families who are challenged to navigate a new school system in a language that isn’t their first. To support them, the division elevated two family advocates into Community School Resource Coordinator positions and partnered with refugee resettlement agencies, cultural navigators, and translation services so they could connect with families in their own language.

At the middle school, an International Family Advisory Committee meets in Portuguese, and the Afghan Community Picnic connects families to the school through cultural celebration. At the high school, students designed Tiger Cart, their own attendance initiative with student-authored branding and an implementation plan. Henrico’s approach is showing results. On-time attendance has increased at both schools, with the strongest gains among the students the program was designed to reach.