Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Constitution State
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Hartford's 27.9% chronic absenteeism rate vs Greenwich's 0.1% in 2020 captures Connecticut's education inequality in a single statistic — a gap that widened for years before COVID.
CREC magnet enrollment grew 96% since 2011 under the Sheff desegregation ruling while Hartford lost 27% of its students and dropped from largest to fourth-largest district.
Hartford School District's chronic absenteeism rate never dropped below 22% in nine years of data — the pre-COVID baseline reveals a structural attendance emergency that the pandemic only amplified.
In the COVID-shortened 2019-20 school year, 78 of 187 Connecticut districts hit their worst-ever chronic absenteeism rates — a preview of the spike to 23.7% that would come two years later.
Immigration powered Danbury to buck a statewide enrollment collapse, but a 506-student drop in 2025-26 signals the growth engine may be stalling.
Connecticut's 2025-26 enrollment dropped 2.1%, the largest non-COVID decline since 2007. First grade alone lost 4,322 students, more than four of every ten the state lost.
EL enrollment grew 80.5% over 15 years while CT lost 66,739 students. In 2025-26, 2,157 English learners disappeared from the rolls, the largest non-COVID drop on record.
Connecticut kindergarten enrollment has fallen 21% since 2011, losing 8,431 students. First grade is down 25%. The pipeline feeding the state's schools is collapsing from the bottom up.
White enrollment fell 35.9% since 2011, transforming suburbs like East Haven and South Windsor from 75% white to below 50%. Fifteen districts crossed the majority-minority threshold.
Hartford dropped from Connecticut's largest district to fourth in 15 years, losing 5,802 students as CREC magnets nearly doubled and kindergarten enrollment was cut in half.
Connecticut's public school enrollment dropped to 497,760 in 2025-26, crossing below 500,000 for the first time since the early 2000s after 15 years of nearly unbroken decline.
CSDE releases 2025-26 enrollment data showing 497,760 students statewide — down 10,640, the largest loss since 2007.