York County Public Schools (YCPS) outperformed the state on most measures of school performance and progress in the latest report card from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). The Fall 2026 results come from the School Performance and Support Framework, known as SPSF, a statewide system that sorts more than 1,800 schools into performance categories, according to a VDOE release. Nearly every YCPS school earned the top rating, and students beat state averages in every core subject while graduating at a higher rate. Preschool experience among kindergartners remained below the state level even as it grew, and inexperienced teachers were the one staffing measure above the state.
Each school receives a composite score under the SPSF and falls into one of four performance categories: Distinguished, Meets Expectations, Approaching Expectations or Needs Intensive Support. Of the division’s 19 schools, 17 earned Distinguished, while Yorktown Elementary (93.54) and Grafton High (93.32) met expectations, and none fell into a lower category. York High posted the division’s top score at 102.47, followed by Bruton High at 101.79, and Mount Vernon Elementary led the elementary schools at 99.13. All 19 schools are fully accredited, meaning they satisfy the state’s health, safety, staffing, compliance and planning requirements. Across Virginia, schools gained 4 to 5 points on average, and 38 percent moved up a performance category, the VDOE release said.
Pass rates, the share of students who pass state Standards of Learning tests, measure core subject results. YCPS students finished ahead of the state in reading, writing, math, science and history in 2025-26, topping it by double-digit margins in every subject except science. Compared with the 2024-25 results, science fell the most, reading and writing also fell, math held steady, and history was the only subject to improve. The list below gives each subject’s figures.
Core subjects by the numbers: percent passing, 2025-26
Reading: 87 percent, 13 points above the state’s 74 percent; down from 88 percent in 2024-25.
Math: 86 percent, 13 points above the state’s 73 percent; unchanged from 86 percent in 2024-25.
History: 82 percent, 12 points above the state’s 70 percent; up from 79 percent in 2024-25.
Science: 80 percent, 9 points above the state’s 71 percent; down from 84 percent in 2024-25.
Writing: 87 percent, 11 points above the state’s 76 percent; down from 89 percent in 2024-25.
Early education and graduation sit at opposite ends of a student’s time in the school system. Public preschool experience among kindergartners reached 19 percent, below the state’s 36 percent, though the local share has climbed from 15 percent a year earlier. The figure excludes programs run by outside groups, including Head Start operated by a local nonprofit. At the other end, the four-year on-time graduation rate, which counts students who earn a diploma within four years of entering ninth grade, stood at 97.8 percent. That is up from 96.5 percent in 2024-25 and 4.3 points above the state’s 93.5 percent.
Out-of-field teachers, meaning those not fully endorsed for the content they teach, made up 2.4 percent of YCPS teachers, or 26 teachers, compared with 7.4 percent statewide. Inexperienced teachers, those with under one year of classroom experience, made up 7.5 percent of YCPS teachers, or 80 teachers, against 5.4 percent of teachers across Virginia. The division reported no first-year principals and no first-year assistant principals, while the state rates were 1.7 percent and 9.9 percent.
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