Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Constitution State
Education News & Data
Students eligible for free lunch averaged an 18% chronic absence rate compared to 7.9% for non-eligible peers in 2020 — a 10.1-point gap that narrowed only because wealthier students got worse.
Fairfield School District's chronic absence rate remains well below Connecticut's average, but it increased every year from 2014 to 2020 -- the longest worsening streak in the state.
Only 38 of 186 Connecticut districts have returned to pre-pandemic enrollment. The state is 32,852 students below 2019 levels, with the largest districts hit hardest.
Hartford's 27.9% chronic absenteeism rate vs Greenwich's 0.1% in 2020 captures Connecticut's education inequality in a single statistic — a gap that widened for years before COVID.
CREC magnet enrollment grew 96% since 2011 under the Sheff desegregation ruling while Hartford lost 27% of its students and dropped from largest to fourth-largest district.
Hartford School District's chronic absenteeism rate never dropped below 22% in nine years of data — the pre-COVID baseline reveals a structural attendance emergency that the pandemic only amplified.
Nearly one in three Connecticut districts is now majority-minority, double the rate in 2011. The shift has moved from cities to inner suburbs.
In the COVID-shortened 2019-20 school year, 78 of 187 Connecticut districts hit their worst-ever chronic absenteeism rates — a preview of the spike to 23.7% that would come two years later.
Immigration powered Danbury to buck a statewide enrollment collapse, but a 506-student drop in 2025-26 signals the growth engine may be stalling.
Connecticut's 2025-26 enrollment dropped 2.1%, the largest non-COVID decline since 2007. First grade alone lost 4,322 students as the 2024 rebound proved a mirage.
EL enrollment grew 80.5% over 15 years while CT lost 66,739 students. In 2025-26, 2,157 English learners disappeared from the rolls, the largest non-COVID drop on record.
