diff --git a/Lib/test/libregrtest/logger.py b/Lib/test/libregrtest/logger.py
index a125706927393c..fa1d4d575c8fd4 100644
--- a/Lib/test/libregrtest/logger.py
+++ b/Lib/test/libregrtest/logger.py
@@ -43,7 +43,10 @@ def log(self, line: str = '') -> None:
 
     def get_load_avg(self) -> float | None:
         if hasattr(os, 'getloadavg'):
-            return os.getloadavg()[0]
+            try:
+                return os.getloadavg()[0]
+            except OSError:
+                pass
         if self.win_load_tracker is not None:
             return self.win_load_tracker.getloadavg()
         return None
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2024-07-13-11-04-44.gh-issue-99242.aGxnwz.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2024-07-13-11-04-44.gh-issue-99242.aGxnwz.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..7d904f26a36ff2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2024-07-13-11-04-44.gh-issue-99242.aGxnwz.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+:func:`os.getloadavg` may throw :exc:`OSError` when running regression tests
+under certain conditions (e.g. chroot). This error is now caught and
+ignored, since reporting load average is optional.