In this series: Oregon Chronic Absenteeism.

Oregon considers students chronically absent when they miss at least 10% of enrolled school days, including excused absences, according to the Oregon Department of Education. A district rate of 25% means one in four students meets that definition.

Of 184 Oregon districts reporting chronic absenteeism data in 2024-25, 154 — 83.7% — had rates at or above 25%. More than two-thirds, 68.5%, were at or above 30%. Another 41.3% were at or above 35%.

Not a few bad districts — a systemic condition

The median district chronic absenteeism rate was 33.4%. That puts the midpoint of the reported district distribution above one in three students.

Thirty districts reported rates below 25%. Lake Oswego was one of them at 18.1%. The chart shows the 10 lowest reported district rates, not all 30 below the threshold.

The historical shift

In 2014-15, 14.8% of reporting Oregon districts had rates at or above 25%. The share was 20.4% in 2018-19, rose to 87.0% in 2021-22, and peaked at 91.3% in 2022-23.

The share fell to 82.1% in 2023-24 before rising to 83.7% in 2024-25. That leaves it 7.6 percentage points below the 2022-23 peak and 63.3 points above 2018-19. The series establishes the change; it does not isolate what caused it.

The higher thresholds

Above 25% is just the entry point. Among Oregon's 184 districts:

• 126 (68.5%) have rates at or above 30%
• 76 (41.3%) are at or above 35%
• 34 (18.5%) are at or above 40%
• 5 (2.7%) are at or above 50% — majority chronically absent

Five districts reported rates at or above 50%.

What the distribution establishes

The 2024-25 distribution shows that high chronic absenteeism rates were widespread across reporting districts, not confined to a small tail. It does not determine which interventions Oregon should use or why individual district rates changed.

Analysis uses district chronic absenteeism data published by the Oregon Department of Education.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.