Correction: An earlier version described the recovery comparison as covering 53 districts. The comparison includes 52 districts with reported chronic absenteeism rates in both 2019 and 2025.

Among the 52 Alaska districts with reported chronic absenteeism rates in both 2019 and 2025, six finished at or below their 2019 rates. Southeast Island School District^↗ET was one of them, with a 2025 rate 3.9 points below its baseline.

Southeast Island's rate fell to 22.8% in 2025 from 26.7% in 2019. Its below-baseline margin was the second widest among the six districts; only Chugach School District^↗ET had a wider margin. The six districts made up 11.5% of the endpoint-comparable group.

Two declines separated by a small increase

The district enrolled 188 students in 2025-26. Its chronic absenteeism rate reached 39.4% in 2022, fell to 29.6% in 2023, edged up 0.2 point to 29.9% in 2024, then dropped to 22.8% in 2025. The rate declined in two of the three adjacent annual changes from 2022 through 2025.

Published subgroup rates moved closer together

The published rate for economically disadvantaged students fell from 42.7% in 2022 to 23.3% in 2025, a 19.4-point decline. The rate for all students fell 16.6 points over the same period.

The published rate for White students declined from 39.8% to 18.3%, a 21.5-point change. By 2025, the economically disadvantaged rate and the districtwide rate were within 0.5 point of each other. These rates show the change in reported absenteeism; they do not identify its cause.

Six below baseline, 46 still above

Alaska's statewide chronic absenteeism rate was 42.8% in 2025, down 5.8 points from 48.6% in 2022. Southeast Island's decline over the same period was larger, but the data alone do not explain the difference.

The remaining 46 districts with comparable rates were still above their 2019 baselines in 2025. Southeast Island's result places it in a small group with a measurable endpoint recovery, while leaving the district's explanation for that change unanswered.

The AKEdTribune contacted representatives of Southeast Island School District for comment and did not receive a response before publication.

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