Before COVID, the gap between Pacific Islander and Asian students in chronic absenteeism was 19 percentage points. In 2025, it is 29 points. The gap between Native Hawaiian and Asian students went from 16 points to 25. The poverty gap widened. The special education gap widened. The English learner gap widened. Even the Filipino-Asian gap -- between two groups often discussed under the same "model minority" umbrella -- more than doubled, from 2 points to 5.

Every measurable equity gap in Hawaii's chronic absenteeism data is wider today than it was before the pandemic. Not a single one has closed.

The Racial Hierarchy Stretched, Not Shuffled

COVID did not create new inequities in Hawaii's attendance data. It amplified existing ones. The racial order of chronic absenteeism has been essentially stable across all seven years of available data (Black and White students tied at 13% during the 2021 disruption, but the top three and the bottom position never moved):

1. Pacific Islander (40% in 2025)
2. Native Hawaiian (36%)
3. Hispanic (26%)
4. White (21%)
5. Black (18%)
6. Filipino (16%)
7. Asian (11%)

Not a single group has traded positions with another. The pandemic spiked every group's rates, but the groups at the top spiked more, and the groups at the bottom recovered faster. The result is a wider spread between the best and worst outcomes.

How Much Each Gap Widened

The gap changes are consistent in direction but vary in magnitude:

Gap	2019	2025	Change
Pacific Islander vs. Asian	19pp	29pp	+10pp
Native Hawaiian vs. Asian	16pp	25pp	+9pp
Hispanic vs. Asian	10pp	15pp	+5pp
White vs. Asian	6pp	10pp	+4pp
Black vs. Asian	3pp	7pp	+4pp
Filipino vs. Asian	2pp	5pp	+3pp

The largest groups -- Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian, who together make up the largest share of Hawaii's student population -- experienced the largest gap expansions. This is not a story about small subgroups at the margins. It is about the core of Hawaii's student body.

Poverty and Disability Gaps Also Wider

The pattern extends beyond race. Economically disadvantaged students had a 6-percentage-point gap above the state average before COVID. That gap ballooned to 13 points during the 2022 peak and has only narrowed to 8 points by 2025 -- still a third wider than pre-pandemic.

Special education students show a similar pattern: an 8-point pre-COVID gap that peaked at 12 points and remains at 9. English learners had a 1-point gap before COVID, spiked to 9 points in 2021 (earlier than other groups, suggesting remote learning hit immigrant families first), and sit at 4 points in 2025.

Frozen Rankings

Seven years. The top of the ranking and the bottom never moved. Pacific Islander students held the highest chronic rate in every year. Asian students held the lowest. Native Hawaiian and Hispanic students stayed firmly in the second and third positions. The only shuffle came in 2021, when Black and White students briefly tied at 13 percent, then returned to their pre-pandemic order.

Asian students were at the bottom in 2019 and are at the bottom in 2025. Pacific Islander students were at the top and remain there. The pandemic didn't reshuffle the order at the top or the bottom -- it just stretched the distance between each rung.

That kind of stability says something uncomfortable: these gaps are not being driven by temporary factors that intervention programs can fix. They track the geography of where families live, the economy of what jobs they hold, and the infrastructure of what services are within reach. Schools record the attendance. They don't control the conditions that produce it.

The Hawaii Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

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