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Correction (July 21, 2026): The original article compared Red Lake's 68.4% rate with a 13.1% state rate and said the district-state gap widened to 55.3 points. Current Minnesota Department of Education data reports a 21.4% state rate and a 47.0-point gap in 2023-24; that gap narrowed from 50.3 points in 2021-22. The article also described Red Lake as Minnesota's highest-rate district without a size qualification and attributed the pattern to causes the attendance file cannot test. This version corrects and bounds those claims.

In 2023-24, 985 of the 1,441 students in Red Lake Public School District^↗ET were counted as chronically absent. That produced a 68.4% rate, about two-thirds of district enrollment.

The rate was 76.5% in 2021-22 and 76.3% in 2022-23. Its decline to 68.4% was an 8.1-percentage-point improvement from the first year in the district series.

The latest Red Lake rate was 3.2 times Minnesota's 21.4% statewide rate, a 47.0-point difference. Among districts with at least 500 students in the package's 2023-24 data, Red Lake had the highest chronic-absence rate.

A crisis measured in children

Red Lake's reported enrollment changed by 26 students from 2021-22 to 2023-24, a 1.8% decline. Over the same period, the number counted as chronically absent fell by 137, from 1,122 to 985.

Year	Chronic Rate	Students Absent	Enrollment
2021-22	76.5%	1,122	1,467
2022-23	76.3%	1,097	1,437
2023-24	68.4%	985	1,441

Other high-rate districts

Red Lake was not the only district far above the state rate. Cass Lake-Bena Public Schools^↗ET reported 571 chronically absent students among 1,112 enrolled in 2023-24, a 51.3% rate. Its available series was 54.2% in 2021-22, 49.2% in 2022-23 and 51.3% in 2023-24.

Mahnomen Public School District^↗ET reported 292 chronically absent students among 650 enrolled, a 44.9% rate. The package data used here reports district totals; it does not establish the demographic composition or causes behind any district's rate.

What the gap means for the state

Minnesota's statewide rate fell from 26.2% in 2021-22 to 22.2% in 2022-23 and 21.4% in 2023-24. Red Lake's rate fell by more over the full interval, so the district-state gap narrowed from 50.3 to 47.0 points. It was 54.1 points in the intervening year.

The numbers establish a severe attendance difference and a recent improvement. They do not identify why students were absent or which actions, if any, produced the decline. Red Lake's latest rate remained the highest among Minnesota districts with at least 500 students even after the 8.1-point improvement.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.