On August 8, 2023, the Lahaina wildfire destroyed much of the historic town on Maui's west side, killing over 100 people and displacing thousands of families. King Kamehameha III Elementary School -- known locally as K3 -- was destroyed. Its students scattered to temporary facilities across the island.

In 2025, K3's chronic absenteeism rate is 24%, matching the state average exactly. It was 67% at its 2022 peak and 20% before the pandemic. The school that lost its building has found something harder to rebuild: regular attendance.

The K3 Recovery

K3's trajectory shows a school that went through the same COVID attendance crisis as every school in Hawaii, then compounded it with a physical catastrophe:

• 2019: 20% (pre-COVID)
• 2022: 67% (COVID peak, pre-fire)
• 2023: 41% (fire year)
• 2024: 32%
• 2025: 24%

The 2023 rate of 41% captures the year of the fire itself. Students who had already been struggling with post-COVID attendance were now displaced, traumatized, and attending school in temporary locations. That the rate dropped to 32% in 2024 and 24% in 2025 is a recovery that defies the scale of disruption.

The Other Lahaina Schools Have Not Recovered

K3's recovery does not extend to the broader Lahaina community. Lahainaluna High School has a chronic rate of 36% -- 14 percentage points above its pre-COVID baseline of 22%. Lahaina Intermediate sits at 30%, more than double its 2019 rate of 12%.

School	2019	2022	2025	vs. Pre-COVID
King Kamehameha III El.	20%	67%	24%	+4pp
Lahainaluna High	22%	48%	36%	+14pp
Lahaina Intermediate	12%	41%	30%	+18pp

The divergence within the Lahaina complex is notable. K3 is within 4 points of its 2019 rate. Lahaina Intermediate is 18 points above. The high school and intermediate school serve older students -- the age group that has been slowest to recover attendance statewide -- and may be absorbing more of the long-term displacement effects.

The Trauma Behind the Numbers

The attendance data does not capture what these students are carrying. Research in the aftermath of the Lahaina fire documented the scale of psychological impact: half of children surveyed showed symptoms of depression, 30% had anxiety disorders, and nearly half met diagnostic criteria for PTSD, according to a University of Hawaii study led by Professor Ruben Juarez.

Enrollment at Lahaina-area schools dropped by more than 20% after the fire, as displaced families left Maui entirely or relocated to other parts of the island. The students who remained are not a random sample -- they are the families who stayed, often because they had no other option. Their attendance recovery is happening alongside ongoing trauma, housing instability, and a community still physically rebuilding.

A Recovery Worth Understanding

K3's drop from 67% to 24% is a 43-percentage-point improvement that puts it among the top turnarounds in the state. But it is happening in conditions that are, in some ways, the opposite of the factors usually associated with attendance improvement: the community is less stable, not more; housing is more precarious, not less; and the mental health burden has increased.

The recovery may reflect the intensive resources directed at Lahaina after the fire -- including emergency housing assistance, mental health services, and community support networks that were mobilized in the disaster's aftermath. If so, it raises an uncomfortable question about what it takes to marshal the level of support that produces attendance recovery, and why it seems to require a catastrophe.

Maui's shortage of mental health professionals, which predated the fires, has not been resolved. The resources that arrived in the immediate aftermath are not permanent. Whether K3 can maintain its recovery as emergency support fades will be one of the most important education stories in Hawaii over the next several years.

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

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