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On Friday, October 30, 2026, Massachusetts Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez walked into Worcester Dual Language Magnet School and talked about a pattern that state figures have now made hard to ignore. In district after district, the places where students miss the most school are, to a striking degree, the places where Hispanic and Latino students make up a large share of enrolment. The visit was not a routine school tour. It was the public face of a new look at attendance data for the 2025-26 school year, and the story it tells is about more than one city or one school year.
The finding matters because chronic absence is not a paperwork problem. When a student misses a tenth of the school year or more, lessons are lost in sequence and catching up grows harder with every week. State leaders treat regular attendance as a precondition for better reading, stronger test results, and higher graduation rates, not as a side project alongside them.
This article works through what the new figures show, why leaders think the gap exists, and what one large district with a similar student population has managed to change. The picture is uneven: some districts are struggling badly, while Worcester itself shows that sustained attention can move the numbers.
At a glance: the story in five points
- State data for 2025-26 shows a strong overlap between districts with the highest chronic absence rates and districts with the highest shares of Hispanic or Latino students.
- Out of the 50 districts with the highest chronic absence rates, 32 also rank among the 50 districts with the largest Hispanic or Latino student shares.
- The three districts with the highest chronic absence rates in the state are Holyoke, Chelsea, and Fitchburg, all with large Hispanic or Latino enrolments.
- Worcester, whose student body is nearly half Hispanic or Latino, has cut chronic absence among its Hispanic or Latino students from 38 percent in 2022 to 32 percent in 2026.
- State officials point to relationships with school staff, bilingual programmes, home visits, and clearer communication with families about their rights as the levers most likely to help.
What the state data actually shows
The analysis behind the story is built on figures from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, covering districts with at least 1,000 students in total. That minimum size matters: it keeps very small districts, where a handful of students can swing a percentage wildly, from distorting a statewide comparison. Within that frame, the overlap is the headline.
Among the 50 districts with the highest share of chronically absent students in 2025-26, 32 also appear among the 50 districts with the highest share of students who identify as Hispanic or Latino. In other words, nearly two-thirds of the worst-affected districts are also among the districts where Hispanic or Latino students form the largest part of the school population. That is not a subtle tilt. It is the dominant pattern in the data.
The comparison with other groups sharpens the point. Twenty-one of the 50 highest-absence districts also rank among the 50 districts with the largest shares of Black students, and 19 of those 21 are also in the top 50 for Hispanic or Latino population. By contrast, only three of the 50 districts with the largest Asian student populations — Lowell, Quincy, and Amherst — appear among the 50 highest-absence districts. The pattern tracks Hispanic and Latino enrolment most closely.
The original reporting, published by the Telegram and Gazette, sets out the district-level detail behind that statewide pattern, and the individual district figures make the abstract overlap concrete.
| District | Chronic absence position in the state | Hispanic or Latino share position |
|---|---|---|
| Holyoke | Highest chronic absence rate, at 44 percent | Third-highest Hispanic or Latino share, at 81 percent |
| Chelsea | Second-highest chronic absence rate | Second-highest Hispanic or Latino share |
| Fitchburg | Third-highest chronic absence rate | Tenth for Hispanic or Latino share |
| Worcester | Nineteenth for chronic absence | Nineteenth for Hispanic or Latino share |
Holyoke stands out on both measures at once: the highest absence rate in the state, and a student body more than four-fifths Hispanic or Latino. Chelsea mirrors that pairing almost exactly, ranking second on both lists. Fitchburg is third for absence while ranking tenth for Hispanic or Latino share, so the pattern is strong without being a perfect one-to-one match. Worcester sits nineteenth on both lists.
Chronic absence rose sharply during the pandemic years and has come down only slowly since, with the heaviest burden falling on students who already faced the most barriers. The improvement seen across 21 states in recent chronic absence data shows progress is possible at scale, but also how uneven it has been from place to place.
How Massachusetts defines chronic absence, and why the line matters
Massachusetts defines a student as chronically absent when they miss at least 10 percent of the school year, which works out to at least 18 days across a standard 180-day school year. The definition counts all absences, whatever the reason. That breadth is deliberate: from a learning point of view, a missed lesson is a missed lesson, whether the cause was illness, transport trouble, a family responsibility, or a decision to stay away.
The 10 percent line turns a vague worry into a measurable threshold. A student who misses two days a month, every month, will cross it before the year is out, often without any single absence feeling dramatic. That is why tracking attendance as a running percentage, rather than waiting for a term-end total, catches problems while there is still time to reverse them.
The consequences are cumulative. Later work assumes earlier work is understood, so gaps compound, and teachers lose the daily contact that lets them notice a struggling student early. Over a school career, repeated absence is associated with weaker achievement and a lower likelihood of graduating on time. If absence is concentrated in particular communities, the learning loss is concentrated there too. The partnerships between health agencies and schools to tackle chronic absence reflect the same logic: many barriers sit outside the classroom, so the response must reach beyond it.
Why the gap appears: three explanations from people working in the schools
Statistics show where a problem sits, but not why. People who work with affected families every day point to three broad groups of pressures, none of which alone accounts for the whole pattern.
Care responsibilities at home, especially for older students
The first explanation concerns what happens before the school day starts. Counsellors describe older students, particularly in immigrant families, taking on care for younger siblings: getting them up, fed, and walked to school before setting off themselves. Where a parent works early hours, that responsibility can fall on the eldest child as routine, not as an occasional emergency. Attendance data tends to be weakest at high school level, and this fits that shape: the younger child arrives, while the older sibling arrives late or not at all.
A follow-through gap between plans and families
The second explanation is about the distance between a school’s attendance system and the families it serves. Massachusetts schools generally have detailed, multi-step intervention plans, and staff can describe them clearly. The difficulty, according to a Worcester school committee member who has also worked as a counsellor, is that teachers and parents do not always feel included in those plans in practice. A plan never explained in a way a family can act on will not change behaviour, however well designed it is. Families need to know early that attendance is slipping and what the school can offer; schools need to hear what is actually preventing attendance, rather than assuming the cause.
Fear linked to immigration enforcement, and the communication task that follows
The third explanation is the most sensitive, and the one officials addressed most directly in Worcester. Many Hispanic families, including families with mixed immigration status, worry about drawing attention from immigration authorities, and that worry can extend to contact with any public institution, including a school. A parent nervous about official attention may avoid meetings, decline home visits, or keep a child home rather than risk an interaction they do not feel safe navigating.
Survey evidence underlines that this is not marginal. In a survey of 1,200 Massachusetts public school teachers published in October 2026 by the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Center for Education Policy, 70 percent said their students’ immigration status had a negative effect on their education. The state response, as described by the commissioner, is less about changing the law than communicating protections that already exist for students and families in schools. A right families do not know about cannot reassure them, so districts need to say so directly to parents, not assume the message has arrived.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as chronic absence in Massachusetts?
A student is chronically absent if they miss at least 10 percent of the school year, or at least 18 days in a standard 180-day year, counting all absences whatever the reason.
Which Massachusetts districts have the highest chronic absence rates?
Holyoke has the highest rate in the state for 2025-26, at 44 percent, followed by Chelsea in second place and Fitchburg in third. Holyoke also has the third-highest share of Hispanic or Latino students, at 81 percent, while Chelsea ranks second on that measure and Fitchburg ranks tenth.
Why do Hispanic students in Massachusetts miss more school than their peers?
No single cause explains the gap. People working in the schools point to older students caring for younger siblings, a gap between schools’ attendance plans and families’ experience of them, and worry among some families about contact with authorities linked to immigration status. Language barriers and a shortage of bilingual staff add to the difficulty.
Is chronic absence improving in Massachusetts?
The picture is mixed. Statewide, absence remains above pre-pandemic levels in many places, but individual districts show real movement. Worcester cut chronic absence among its Hispanic or Latino students from 38 percent in 2022 to 32 percent in 2026, showing that sustained local focus can shift the figures.
How can families check a student’s attendance percentage?
Divide days attended by total school days held and multiply by 100. Tracking the figure through the term, rather than waiting for a year-end total, gives families time to act while recovery is still straightforward.
What Worcester shows about improvement
Worcester is a useful counterweight to the statewide pattern: it shares the demographic profile of the worst-affected districts and yet is moving in the right direction. Its student body is nearly 50 percent Hispanic or Latino, and it ranks nineteenth in the state for both chronic absence and Hispanic or Latino share. Within that context, the fall in chronic absence among its Hispanic or Latino students, from 38 percent in 2022 to 32 percent in 2026, is a meaningful shift over four years, even though the remaining level is still high. The district describes daily attendance as foundational to achievement and an urgent priority for several years — improvement from sustained focus, not a single initiative in a single term.
One school illustrates that focus at ground level. Earlier in the current school year, Columbus Park Elementary School was recognised by the state for dramatic improvement in both attendance and test results, alongside three other elementary schools in Worcester. Columbus Park’s student body is nearly 60 percent Hispanic or Latino, a direct answer to the assumption that demographics decide outcomes.
In Illinois, the latest statewide report card showed academic scores rising while absence remained a stubborn problem in Chicago and elsewhere. The Illinois report card findings on scores and absenteeism make the same point: progress in one area does not automatically fix the other, and both need separate, sustained attention.
What the state says it will do next
The commissioner’s comments sketch a practical programme rather than a single new rule, in five steps other districts could copy.
First, identify strong practice where it already exists and spread it, rather than imposing one model everywhere — looking closely at schools like Columbus Park and asking what, precisely, they did differently. Second, back that practice with grants, so a local success becomes something other schools can adopt without starting from scratch. Third, use direct, personal approaches with families: home visits, working directly with parents, and recognition for students with high attendance, rather than a letter that may never be read. Fourth, build the relationships that keep students coming back, including more diverse teaching staff and expanded bilingual programmes so English learners can communicate fully with the adults around them. Fifth, close the staffing gap that limits bilingual support, which the state openly acknowledges it does not yet have at the scale needed.
None of these steps promises a quick fix. Home visits take staff time, bilingual programmes take trained teachers, and trust with wary families is built slowly. Together, though, they match the causes identified: personal contact for the follow-through gap, bilingual staff and clear rights communication for the fear barrier, and practical family support for the care responsibilities that pull older students away.
What families and schools can take from this
For families, the lesson applies far beyond one state: attendance is best watched as a running total, not discovered at the end of a term. A student who has missed 9 days in a 180-day year is halfway to the chronic absence line, and that is the moment to talk to the school. Schools can only help with barriers they know about, which makes early, honest contact in both directions the most useful habit in the picture.
For schools, Worcester suggests demographics are a starting point, not a verdict. A district with a large Hispanic or Latino population and a high absence rate four years ago moved its figures substantially by treating attendance as a daily, whole-district priority. The work — visits, parent contact, bilingual support, recognition for good attendance — is unglamorous and repetitive, and on the evidence presented, it is the work that moves numbers.
The statewide pattern remains serious. When nearly two-thirds of the worst-affected districts are also among those with the largest Hispanic or Latino populations, the issue is structural, and it will need a structural response: more bilingual staff, clearer communication about families’ rights, and the sustained local focus Worcester has shown.
For any family wanting to keep track of where a student stands, the arithmetic is simple and worth doing regularly: days attended, divided by days held, multiplied by 100. The free attendance percentage calculator on this site does that calculation instantly, so a family can test how the percentage changes with each absence and see exactly how close a student is to the 10 percent line before it becomes a problem.
