Charts: Little progress on getting Massachusetts absenteeism under control
Absenteeism may have declined further by the end of the year, but the March 1 number was just 0.3 points lower than the prior year. In some years, full-year absenteeism has been slightly higher than the March 1 rate.
In 2022, the state began tracking even-more-severe absenteeism: students missing 20 percent of school. Those students miss a day of school each week, on average.
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In the most recent school year through March, 5 percent of students were absent that often.
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In each of the state's 10 largest districts, absenteeism in March 2025 was up at least 3.8 percentage points from 2019. Newton's absenteeism as of March was about the statewide pre-pandemic average, at more than 12 percent, while districts including Boston, Springfield, and Lynn still had more than 30 percent of students missing 10 percent of school.
Overall, just 10 percent of the state's traditional and charter districts reported lower absenteeism through March than in 2019, mostly very small districts such as Truro, Maynard, and Florida.
And most of those districts, like the state, reported very little progress from March 2024 to March 2025. Just three of the biggest districts — Lawrence, New Bedford, and Newton — brought absenteeism down by more than 3 points from March 2024 to March 2025.
Lawrence Superintendent Ralph Carrero attributed his district's progress to a coalition that brings together more than a dozen of the city's social service agencies and nonprofits for monthly meetings about every homeless and new immigrant student. Still, one-quarter of Lawrence students were chronically absent.
As well as being geographically widespread, the rise in absenteeism has affected every demographic group. In Massachusetts, white and Asian students have the lowest absenteeism rates, but rates for both groups have risen by half. Low income and Latino students have the highest rates, and their rates have increased by more than one-quarter.
There remain large gaps between groups in absenteeism, however. Through March, high needs students — those who are low income, English learners, and/or have disabilities — were absent 26 percent of the time, compared to 19 percent of all students.
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Christopher Huffaker can be reached at
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