Every year the Florida Department of Education publishes chronic absenteeism data, Collier CountyET appears in the same place: below the state average. Not by a little. By a lot, and by a growing margin.

In 2023-24, Collier's chronic absenteeism rate was 17.4%, while the state average sat at 31.4%. That 14-point gap is the widest it has ever been. In 2017-18, the difference was 8.5 points. Every year since, as Florida's statewide rate climbed and plateaued at pandemic-era levels, Collier kept pulling further away.

Part of the Florida Chronic AbsenteeismET series.

A recovery that actually happened

Collier was not immune to COVID. Its chronic rate jumped from 11.9% in 2019 to 24.3% in 2022, tracking the statewide surge. But what happened next distinguishes Collier from virtually every other district in Florida: it recovered. The rate dropped to 18.4% in 2023 and 17.4% in 2024, a two-year improvement of nearly 7 percentage points. Collier's current rate is closer to pre-pandemic Florida (20.0%) than to the Florida of today (31.4%).

Among 73 districts with comparable data, only Hendry County has a chronic rate below its pre-COVID level, but Hendry's "recovery" is clouded by an enrollment anomaly that nearly doubled its student count. Collier's improvement is straightforward: the district got students back to school, on a consistent basis, in numbers that show up clearly in the data.

Among the best of the large districts

With 51,833 students, Collier is not a small district where a few dozen families can swing the rate. It is a major school system in Southwest Florida, larger than Brevard and comparable in size to Lake County. Among districts with 50,000 or more students, Collier has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate in the state. St. JohnsET (20.1%) and BrevardET (21.1%) are the closest peers, but both sit 3 percentage points higher or more.

The gap between Collier and the struggling large districts is enormous. BrowardET, with five times the enrollment, has a chronic rate nearly double Collier's (33.6%). Duval is at 44.8%. Polk is at 39.1%.

The growing advantage

The most telling chart may be the simplest: Collier's advantage over the state average has grown every year except during the pandemic surge. In 2018, the gap was 8.5 points. By 2024, it had grown to 14.0 points. This means Collier is not merely holding its own while the state worsens. It is actively separating from the pack.

Florida's absence data does not include demographic breakdowns, so it is not possible to determine from the data alone whether Collier's advantage reflects its student demographics, its school culture, its community engagement practices, or some combination. Collier County is a relatively affluent area (Naples is its county seat), but it also enrolls a diverse student population, and wealth alone does not guarantee low absenteeism.

What the data does show is that a large Florida district can achieve a chronic absenteeism rate that most of its peers cannot. Collier's 17.4% would have been considered unremarkable in 2018, when the state average was 20.4%. In 2024, it is exceptional. The question for the rest of Florida is whether whatever Collier is doing can be understood well enough to replicate it, and whether the state is interested in finding out.

Collier County Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.

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