Correction (September 30, 2026): An earlier version compared Nā Wai Ola Public Charter School's 2024-25 chronic absence rate with its rates from 2018-19 and 2021-22 and called the difference a 37-point improvement. Hawaii changed how it counts chronic absence in 2023-24, from students absent 15 or more days to students absent 18 or more days, so those years are not directly comparable and that comparison has been removed. The earlier version also described Connections PCS as an online virtual school; it is a charter school in Hilo. Charter-versus-traditional averages, a count of charter schools, and a claim that charters have the widest spread of any school category were removed because the state's attendance files do not identify which schools are charters.

Kanuikapono Public Charter School had a 1% chronic absence rate in 2024-25, the lowest of the 295 Hawaii schools with a published rate that year. Connections PCS had a 59% rate, second only to Olomana School at 73%. Both are charter schools, and 58 percentage points separate them. The statewide rate was 24%.

The two schools are on opposite ends of the islands as well as the table. The State Public Charter School Commission lists Kanuikapono in Anahola on Kauai and Connections in Hilo on Hawaii Island.

Kanuikapono's rate was also 1% the year before, in 2023-24, while Connections was at 58%. Both years use the same measure: the share of students absent 18 or more days.

Charter Schools Across the Range

The state's attendance file does not say which schools are charters. The chart below lists the schools whose names in that file include "charter" or "PCS," so it can miss a charter school whose name does not say so. Among those named schools, rates run the full length of the statewide table.

Placed against every school in the state, the named charters do not bunch together. They sit at the low end, around the state rate, and near the top.

Nā Wai Ola's One-Year Drop

Nā Wai Ola Public Charter School had the second-lowest rate among the named charters in 2024-25, at 3%. A year earlier its rate was 45%. That 42-point drop was the largest one-year change among the 293 schools with rates in both years. The next-largest drop was 16 points.

A change that size in a single year can reflect a change in how a school operates, in who enrolls, or in how attendance is recorded. The state's attendance files do not say which.

Under the older measure, which counted students absent 15 or more days, Nā Wai Ola's rate was 40% in 2018-19 and peaked at 57% in 2021-22. Those figures cannot be set directly against 3%, because the threshold moved to 18 days in 2023-24 and rates under the newer measure run lower partly for that reason.

What the Spread Shows

Kanuikapono and Connections share a governance category, and in 2024-25 they sat at opposite ends of the state's attendance table. Treating charter schools as one sector hides that range. The state's files record attendance rates, not the programs, schedules, or enrollment policies that might explain why two charter schools land so far apart.

Attendance figures come from the Hawaii Department of Education's school accountability reports, covering 2018-19 through 2024-25.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.