Waterloo
Five Districts, 27% of the Problem: Iowa's Chronic Absence Concentration
Iowa has 327 school districts reporting chronic absenteeism data. Five of them account for more than a quarter of every chronically absent student in the state.
The Suburban-Urban Divide: West Des Moines at 90%, Des Moines at 71%
Drive west on Interstate 235 from downtown Des Moines to the suburb of West Des Moines and the graduation rate climbs 18 points. Drive another 10 minutes to Waukee and it climbs 26 points. Same metro ...
The Special Ed Gap Is 18 Points -- Iowa's Most Persistent Equity Divide
Special education students in Iowa graduated at 70% in 2024. The statewide average was 88%. The 18-point gap between the two is the widest equity divide in Iowa's graduation data after Native American...
Iowa's White-Black Graduation Gap Is 15 Points -- And It Hasn't Budged
Iowa's statewide graduation rate returned to 88% in 2024, matching its pre-pandemic level for the first time since 2019. By the most visible metric, the state has recovered.
Des Moines Has Lost 5 Points Since 2019 — The State Capital's Graduation Slide
Des Moines Independent, the largest school district in Iowa, graduated 71% of its students in 2024. Five years earlier, it was 76%.
One in Three: Waterloo and Davenport's Persistent Absence Crisis
Correction (2026-05-09): An earlier version of this article reported the 2021-22 gap between Waterloo and the state average as 12.2 points. The correct value is 12.9 points.
Three-Quarters Back: Iowa Has Recovered 76% from the COVID Absence Surge
The math is straightforward. Iowa's chronic absenteeism rate peaked at 25.6% in 2021-22. The pre-COVID baseline was 12.7% in 2018-19. The current rate is 15.8%. That puts Iowa 75.9% of the way back, t...