Waldport schools show among highest attendance rates in Lincoln County

By KHUSHBOO RATHORE and JAMES NEFF/Oregon Journalism Project

After years in the lowest ranks of school attendance in the nation, Oregon schools have shown a bit of progress.

An Oregon Journalism Project analysis of recent data shows regular statewide attendance in the first half of the school year rose to 70.6%, an increase of 3 percentage points over the previous year.

Even so, nearly a third of Oregon students were still chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days, or about two days a month.

The state’s attendance has ranked among the nation’s worst for the past decade, according to FutureEd, a policy think tank at Georgetown University. For the 2024-25 school year, for example, only Alaska and the District of Columbia had worse rates of chronic absenteeism. Oregon’s recent 33.5% far surpassed the national average of 22%.

Historically, the Oregon Department of Education hasn’t shared attendance reports until months after the school year ends. Rhode Island, on the other hand, tracks attendance daily and shares results on a dashboard, allowing users to track chronic absenteeism much as investors follow key economic indicators.

To set a higher standard of transparency, OJP obtained 2025-26 attendance data via public records requests to create a first-of-its-kind searchable database.

The tracker shows how consistently students attended school from August to December 2025 and the percentage change from the year before, showing school names, counties and enrollment data. The database lacks a few schools that did not report attendance data to the state for this time period and schools with attendance listed as “>95%” or greater than 95%, were adjusted to 95% for presentation and analysis. 

In Lincoln County, Eddyville Charter School had the highest regular attendance rate at 86%, marking a 19% jump from the previous school year, while just over 50% of students attended Toledo Senior High School, which had the lowest attendance among schools listed in the county. Taft High in Lincoln City had a similar rate, up 2%.

Waldport High School, at 71%, had the highest attendance rate in the county, and Waldport Middle School had the highest attendance among regular middle schools in the county at nearly 77%. Newport’s High and Middle schools each had about 70% regular attendance.

Regular school attendance, defined as attending 90% or more of school days, is paramount to Oregon’s academic success — especially for early literacy. Oregon’s fourth grade reading scores rank last in the nation, adjusted for demographics, according to an Urban Institute analysis.

In addition to the tracker, OJP also analyzed underlying data behind the attendance rates and emerged with several findings.

• While Oregon still has among the worst attendance rates in the U.S., this year the rate has gone up:
  2023-24:   67.9%
  2024-25:   67.6%
  2025-26:   70.6%

• Attendance increased across the board for all student groups. Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders had the highest gain, 4 percentage points. Hispanic students went up 2.8 points while Black students saw the lowest gain, 1.6 points. Still, all students of color, except Asian students, had lower attendance rates than the student population as a whole.

• Individual schools with the largest gains in regular attendance year over year include: Lincoln School of Early Learning in Coos County — up 37.3%; Dufur School in Wasco County — up 32.9%; Oregon Family School in Harney County — up 20.5%; Centennial Elementary in Linn County — up 20.9%; and Roosevelt Elementary in Klamath County — up 20.2%.

• A school with one of the biggest drops in attendance was Powers High School in Coos County. And the Jewell School District in Clatsop County had the sharpest drop for an entire district, from 78.9% to 35.5%.  

Earlier this year, the Oregon Legislature passed a law that requires the state to share attendance data more frequently—four times a year. The first report is expected in the fall.

Until that happens, OJP will continue to update its statewide Attendance Tracker.

The Oregon Journalism Project is a nonprofit news initiative whose goal is to inform, engage, and empower Oregonians.