Hawaii County
Every Hawaiian County Moved Further From Pre-COVID Enrollment in 2026
In most states, public school enrollment five years after COVID has at least stabilized. In Hawaii, it is accelerating in the wrong direction. All four Hawaiian counties ended the 2025-26 school year ...
Hawaii Falls Below 165,000 Students for the First Time
In 2024, Hawaii public schools lost 901 students. That looked like a floor. This year, they lost 3,425.
Hawaii on Track to Drop Below 160,000 Students by 2030
In 2024, Hawaii's public school enrollment slipped below 170,000 for the first time in modern records. A year later, it fell again to 167,076. At the three-year average rate of decline, the state will...
Every Year, 1,400 Students Appear in Hawaii's 9th Grade
In 2024-25, Hawaii's public schools enrolled 14,241 ninth graders. The year before, those same schools had 12,899 eighth graders. That is 1,342 more students than the cohort that should have fed into ...
Hawaii Falls Below 170,000 for Second Straight Year
Hawaii's public schools now serve fewer than 170,000 students for the second consecutive year, a threshold the state first crossed in 2023-24. The state enrolled 167,076 students in 2024-25, down 2,23...
34 Hawaii Schools Fall Below Viability Threshold
Maunaloa Elementary on Molokai enrolled 59 students last year and operated on a budget of roughly $900,000. That is about $350,000 short of the $1.38 million that principals say a small elementary sch...
Honolulu Nears the 100,000-Student Threshold
Honolulu has lost the equivalent of an entire school system. Since peaking at 122,195 students in the 2013-14 school year, the county's public school enrollment has fallen every single year, reaching ...
One Sector Grew Through COVID. The Rest Lost 15,000 Students.
In the year the pandemic emptied classrooms across Hawaii, one sector kept growing. Charter schools added 329 students between 2020 and 2021, a 2.8% gain, while traditional public schools in every cou...
All Four Hawaii Counties at Record Lows
Kauai lost 181 students last year. Hawaii County lost 165. In isolation, those are small numbers for small systems. But in 2024-25, they add up to something that has never happened before in at least ...
A Decade After Act 76, K Still 29% Below Peak
In 2014, Hawaii had 16,539 kindergartners. One year later, it had 10,908. No disaster, no pandemic, no economic collapse. The state legislature had moved the kindergarten entry age cutoff from Decembe...
Hawaii Ranked 2nd in Academic Recovery. Its Students Still Haven't Come Back.
A Harvard-Stanford study ranked Hawaii's public schools second nationally in reading recovery and fourth in math recovery since the pandemic. By the usual metrics of school quality, the system is work...
Maui Lost 807 Students in One Year
Between 2016 and 2020, Maui County's public school enrollment barely moved. The island held steady at around 21,200 students while Honolulu bled thousands. Then COVID hit, and Maui began losing studen...
Hawaii's 11-Year Losing Streak Is the Longest on Record
In 2014, Hawaii's public schools enrolled 186,850 students. Eleven years later, not one of those years has reversed the trajectory. The state closed the 2024-25 school year at 167,076, a loss of 19,77...
One in 13 Hawaii Students Now Attends a Charter School
In 2020-21, with campuses shuttered and families rethinking their options, Hawaii's charter schools added 329 students. Traditional public schools lost 4,976. That single year cracked open a divergenc...
Honolulu Has Lost More Students Than Maui Has Total
Honolulu has not gained a single student in 11 years. Since enrollment peaked at 122,195 in 2013-14, the county has lost students every single year, falling to 103,985 in 2024-25. The cumulative loss ...
For First Time, Hawaii Has More Seniors Than Kindergartners
In the 2024-25 school year, Hawaii's public schools enrolled 11,905 seniors and 11,746 kindergartners. It is the first time in the state's data history that 12th graders outnumbered kindergartners. Th...