Chronic absenteeism drops slightly among Maryland students, but misses state goal

Racquel Bazos, The Baltimore Sun on Sep 10, 2026

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BALTIMORE — Maryland’s chronic absenteeism rate dropped slightly last school year, but the state fell far short of its own goal of cutting the rate in half, education officials announced Thursday.

About 22.8% of Maryland students were chronically absent during the 2025-26 school year, down from 25% the previous year, according to preliminary state data.

The state’s rate means nearly 1 in 4 Maryland students were chronically absent last school year.

The decline comes as state education officials had set a much more ambitious target: reducing chronic absenteeism from a post-pandemic baseline of 30% in 2022-23 to 15% by the end of the 2025-26 school year.

State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright, State Board of Education President Joshua Michael, Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Bill Heiser, First Lady Dawn Moore and State Sen. Charles Sydnor III highlighted the decline in a news conference Thursday while acknowledging that Maryland has more work to do.

“We are very proud of the progress that we’ve made. We know we’ve got a lot more to do,” Wright said.

“It starts with us,” Michael said of parents and educators. “Our young people are looking to us to show up first.”

The Maryland rate is roughly in line with national estimates. The American Enterprise Institute found that chronic absenteeism averaged about 23% across 39 states and the District of Columbia in 2024-25, about 50% higher than before the pandemic.

New data released in August by SchoolStatus also found chronic absenteeism continuing to decline, with a 20.29% rate across the 142 districts and more than 1.1 million students it analyzed.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10% of the school year, whether the absences are excused or unexcused. For a typical 180-day school year, that amounts to at least 18 days of missed school.

Wright and Michael did not provide specific plans, when asked Thursday, about what changes will be made in order to meet that 15% goal.

The state has been trying to bring attendance back toward pre-pandemic levels. That 15% chronic absenteeism target came from the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which labeled it as one of the measures of progress.

Finalized school-by-school chronic absenteeism data will be published on the Maryland Report Card later this fall.

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