District Spotlight
Saco Grew 10% While Maine Lost 12,000 Students
Saco Public Schools added 179 students over nine years, making it the largest traditional district gainer in a state where 88 districts hit all-time lows.
Maine
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Maine, grounded in Maine Department of Education data.
Maine Virtual Academy Kept Growing While Most Stable-Panel Districts Shrunk
Maine Virtual Academy added students in every annual transition in Maine's available enrollment panel while most stable-panel districts shrank.
106 Maine Districts Improved Attendance Every Single Year Since 2022
Nearly half of Maine districts with three years of data improved chronic absenteeism in both consecutive years. Only 15 worsened in both. The breadth of improvement suggests systemic recovery, not isolated success stories.
The 17-Point Poverty Divide: Maine's Low-Income Students Miss School at Double the Rate
Economically disadvantaged students in Maine are chronically absent at 35.0%, nearly double the 17.6% rate for their peers. The gap narrowed 3.2 points in two years but remains the state's deepest structural divide.
Maine's High Schools Hold Steady, but the Pipeline Feeding Them Is Shrinking
Maine's 9-12 enrollment has barely budged in nine years, falling just 4.3%. But K-8 has lost 11,198 students, and today's kindergarten classes are 2,320 smaller than grade 9.
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Equity
Black and White Students in Maine Attend School at Nearly Identical Rates
Maine's Black and white students are chronically absent at near-identical rates, a parity rooted in the state's Somali, Congolese, and Sudanese immigrant communities.
Absence
Maine's Native American Students Are Improving Attendance Fastest, But Still Miss School at 1.6 Times the State Rate
Native American chronic absenteeism dropped 14.9 points in two years, the fastest improvement of any racial group, but 39.3% of students still miss too much school.
Demographics
Multiracial Students Now Tied with Hispanic as Maine's Third-Largest Group
Maine's multiracial enrollment surged 62% in nine years to 6,652. Three growing groups converge as white enrollment sheds nearly 20,000.
District Spotlight
Lewiston Held Its Enrollment Steady While Auburn, Across the River, Lost Seven Straight Years
Lewiston's enrollment held within 3% of its 2017 level while twin-city Auburn, separated by a bridge, declined 9.1% over seven years. Immigration is pulling the two cities apart.
Absence
Maine's Students From Migrant Farmworker Families Posted the State's Largest Attendance Gain
Students from Maine's migrant farmworker families cut chronic absenteeism by 21.9 points from 2022 to 2024, the largest gain of any subgroup.
Enrollment
One in Three Maine Districts at Record-Low Enrollment
Eighty-three of Maine's 214 districts hit all-time lows in 2026, including Portland, as three years of accelerating decline force budget cuts statewide.
Special Populations
One in 20 Maine Students Is Now an English Learner
Maine's English learner population surged 54% in nine years even as total enrollment fell, driven by refugee resettlement and asylum seekers in Portland and Lewiston.
Grade Shift
Two Pre-K Students for Every Three Kindergartners
Maine's pre-K enrollment surged 30% while kindergarten fell 14.8%, the steepest grade-level decline in the state. The divergence reveals a policy success colliding with a demographic wall.
Covid Impact
78% of Maine Districts Never Recovered From COVID
Five years after the pandemic, only 47 of 214 Maine districts have regained pre-COVID enrollment. The state is 11,436 students below its projected trajectory.
Enrollment
Maine Lost More Students This Year Than Any Since COVID
Maine lost 2,134 students in 2025-26, the worst non-COVID year on record. Three years of losses have erased the post-pandemic bounce.
