Holyoke
More Than One in Four Special Education Students Is Chronically Absent
Correction (July 21, 2026): An earlier version projected the current 3.1-day average-absence gap across a 13-year school career and described subgroup overlap and possible causes that the Massachusett...
Nearly 1 in 3 Hispanic Students Chronically Absent as Racial Gap Widens
In Framingham, a MetroWest suburb where Hispanic students now make up roughly half the district, 40.9% of those students were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year. The rate for white students...
42 Massachusetts Districts Beat Chronic Absenteeism Back to Pre-COVID. Voc-Tech Schools Led the Way.
In Clinton, a small district west of Worcester, 8.7% of students are chronically absent. Before the pandemic, it was 16.1%. The district didn't just recover from COVID's attendance shock. It halved it...
Massachusetts Attendance Recovery Stalls Below 1 Point
Three years ago, Massachusetts was making real progress on chronic absenteeism. The state cut 5.5 percentage points in a single year, the kind of improvement that made recovery feel inevitable. The ne...
One in Four Massachusetts Districts at All-Time Enrollment Lows
Correction (July 23, 2026): An earlier version described 900,490 students as the lowest total since 1994. Enrollment in 1995 was 895,886, below the 2025-26 figure, so the correct reference is the lowe...
Hispanic Enrollment Dips for Only the Second Time in 33 Years
For 30 of the past 32 years, Hispanic enrollment in Massachusetts grew. It grew through recessions and recoveries, through three governors and two presidents, through the post-9/11 years and the Great...
One in Five Massachusetts Students Now Receives Special Education
For six years, from 2009 to 2015, Massachusetts held its special education rate nearly flat. The share of students receiving services hovered between 17.2% and 17.3%, barely moving from year to year. ...