Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Sunshine State
Florida's graduation rate reached a record 89.7% in 2024, eclipsing the pre-COVID high after a sharp post-waiver correction in 2022. The largest cohort in state history produced nearly 195,000 graduates.
976,305 Florida students missed 10% or more of school in 2023-24, up 55% from pre-COVID levels. The cumulative toll since the pandemic: 1.1 million excess student-years.
Jacksonville's school district recorded a 44.8% chronic absenteeism rate in 2023-24 — the highest ever and the worst among Florida's large districts.
Florida's chronic absenteeism rate sits at 31.4%, barely below its pandemic peak. At the current pace, the state won't return to pre-COVID levels until 2048.
Florida K enrollment fell 12.1% since 2015. The state now graduates 42,930 more students than it enrolls in kindergarten each year.
Pasco County added students every year for a decade. In 2026, the streak broke with a loss of 350, a sign Florida's growth corridors have hit a ceiling.
Only 37% of Florida districts have returned to 2019 enrollment. Recovery peaked in 2023 and is now reversing, with the largest districts hit hardest.
Florida's only majority-Black county lost 27.1% of enrollment since 2015, the steepest decline of any sizable district in the state.
More than half of Florida school districts now enroll fewer white students than students of color, a threshold crossed in 2025.
32 of Florida's 67 regular school districts enrolled fewer students in 2025-26 than in any year since 2015.
St. Johns County added 17,222 students over 11 years, but its growth rate collapsed from 7.8% to 0.3% in 2026, the lowest in its streak.
White enrollment fell 6.9% since 2024, accounting for 86% of the state's total student loss. The decline is three times faster than the pre-COVID rate.
88% of Florida's regular school districts declined in 2025-26, matching COVID-era breadth without a pandemic. Every size tier lost ground.
Pinellas County has lost students every year since 2016, shedding 20,194 in the longest active decline streak in Florida. The losses are accelerating.
In 11 years, Lee County swung from white-plurality to Hispanic-majority, a 15-point shift that mirrors Florida's broader demographic transformation.
