Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Aloha State
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Hawaii's K-to-12th-grade ratio fell to 96.2 in 2025-26, the second straight year with more seniors than kindergartners, as birth rate decline and a 2014 age cutoff change lock in further enrollment losses.
Linapuni Elementary in Kalihi went from a 92% chronic absenteeism rate in 2022 to 28% in 2025, leading a neighborhood-wide attendance recovery in one of Honolulu's poorest communities.
Maui County lost 281 students in 2025-26, a fraction of last year's 807-student plunge. The wildfire spike has passed but the decline continues.
Hawaii lost 3,425 students in 2025-26 after losing just 901 two years earlier. Six years into a crash era, the state has shed 17,437 students.
King Kamehameha III Elementary, the Lahaina school destroyed in the August 2023 wildfires, has dropped its chronic rate from 67% to 24%, matching the state average, while other Lahaina schools lag behind.
Charter schools now enroll 8.2% of Hawaii's public school students, but the 2026 gain of just 277 students signals a sector hitting structural limits.
Every racial and socioeconomic gap in Hawaii's chronic absenteeism data is wider in 2025 than it was before COVID, and not a single one has returned to its pre-pandemic level.
Hawaii elementary schools have recovered 65.5% of their COVID chronic absenteeism spike, while high schools have recovered just 46.3%, and the gap between school levels is widening.
Honolulu County has lost 20,854 students since 2014. At the current pace, Oahu will drop below 100,000 students by next year.
One in three economically disadvantaged students in Hawaii is chronically absent, up from 21% before COVID to 32% in 2024-25.
Hawaii's COVID enrollment recovery reversed in 2025-26 as all four counties widened the gap from 2019. The state lost 3,425 students in a single year.
Hawaii's charter schools show the widest chronic absenteeism spread of any school category, from Kanuikapono PCS at 1% to Connections PCS at 59%, revealing that charter status alone says nothing about attendance.
Hawaii enrollment hit 163,651, a new record low. Losses nearly quadrupled in two years as housing costs push families to the mainland.
HIDOE releases 2025-26 enrollment data showing 163,651 students statewide, down 3,425, the largest non-COVID loss on record.
At the current rate of decline, Hawaii will enroll fewer than 160,000 public school students within five years, 13,682 below the state's pre-COVID trajectory.
