Nearly a quarter of Maryland students are still chronically absent from school, and state officials are responding with more tracking — not more accountability for a system that can't get kids in the door.
The latest figures from the Maryland State Department of Education show 23% of students were chronically absent in the 2025-26 school year — missing at least 18 days, excused or unexcused. That's down from a pandemic peak of nearly 32% in 2021-22, but still well above the state's own 15% goal, according to WJLA.
The numbers tell a story of two school systems. Frederick County sits at 16.7%. Baltimore City? 46.4%. Montgomery County reported 22.6%; Prince George's County came in at 30.2%, though the district says its rate fell further to 27.4% last year.
Those gaps aren't new, and they aren't closing fast enough for the families stuck in the worst-performing districts. Maryland defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% or more of the school year — in a standard 180-day calendar, that's 18 days. The definition includes both excused and unexcused absences, which means the problem runs deeper than kids skipping class.
Elizabeth Cook of Attendance Works pointed to health-related absences as a driver. "We know that one of the primary causes for absences in general, right, when people call in, when they are not coming to school is because they are sick," Cook told WJLA. She said schools need to distinguish between acute illness, chronic health conditions, and mental health issues before they can respond effectively.
That's a fair observation, but it raises the question nobody in the system wants to answer: where is the money going, and who profits when schools fail? Maryland's education budget is among the highest per-pupil in the country, yet Baltimore City — which receives enormous state aid — can't get half its students to show up regularly. Montgomery County's own public schools reported spending on "attendance plans" and "teams working with families" to address barriers. More staff. More programs. More monitoring.
Maryland's assistant state superintendent, Mary Gable, says the state is now tracking absenteeism monthly instead of waiting for end-of-year data. "So now we are looking at chronic absenteeism and not only are we looking at it more often and in more detail, but we are looking at it monthly," Gable said.
More data. More committees. The same results.
The establishment press frames this as a recovery story — absenteeism falling, officials working hard. WJLA led with the improvement, burying the reality that the state is still 50% above its own goal and that Baltimore City's rate should be a scandal. The Daily Caller, for its part, was occupied with a separate story on New York's failing concealed-carry restrictions — another blue-state institution that can't follow the law, different department.
The question that matters for working families: how long will taxpayers keep funding a system that can't deliver, and who in Annapolis is willing to name the problem — that government schools serve bureaucrats first and students last?
