district-spotlight
Sumter: Where More Than One in Three Students Miss a Month of School
Sumter has the worst chronic absenteeism of any large SC district at 35.9%, with rates above 30% for every racial group and nearly every subpopulation.
South Carolina
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of South Carolina, grounded in South Carolina Department of Education data.
Three South Carolina Districts Are Sliding Backward as the State Hits Record Highs
While SC's graduation rate hit an all-time high, Lexington 2 dropped 13 points, Darlington fell 11, and Spartanburg 4 declined 10.6, the largest declines among traditional districts.
One in Four Students With Disabilities Won't Graduate on Time in South Carolina
Students with disabilities in SC graduate at 61.6% (25 points below the state average) and at the current pace of improvement, closing the gap would take 25 years.
South Carolina Now Enrolls Fewer Kindergartners Than Seniors
SC's K:G12 ratio fell below 100 for the first time in 2025 and dropped to 95.4 in 2026, with 2,546 fewer kindergartners than 12th graders.
Oconee County Has Worsened Every Year While South Carolina Recovered
Oconee County has worsened every year in SC's chronic absenteeism data, rising from 19.3% to 23.2% while the state recovered from its peak.
More Coverage
equity
South Carolina's Boys Are Catching Up, But the Gender Gap in Graduation Remains Nearly 7 Points
Male students in SC graduate at 83.3% vs. 90.2% for female students, a 6.9-point gap that peaked at 12.2 points in 2019.
demographics
A 2017 Reclassification Cut South Carolina's Native American Student Count in Half, on Paper
Native American enrollment fell 49.6% since 2015, but most of the drop is a reporting artifact. A 2017 reclassification into multiracial moved 2,065 students into a new category in one year.
district-spotlight
Corridor of Shame, 30 Years After Abbeville: Florence 2 Crosses 90% and Shows Geography Isn't Destiny
Thirty years after Abbeville, Florence 2 posted the largest graduation-rate gain in SC and crossed 90%, even as the 14 reporting Corridor of Shame districts still trail the rest of the state.
special-populations
English Learners Are Falling Furthest Behind in South Carolina's Graduation Gains
LEP students saw the steepest subgroup decline in SC, dropping from 80.3% to 77.8% as the overall state rate climbed from 81.0% to 86.7%.
demographics
Multiracial Students Are Now SC's Fourth-Largest Racial Group
Multiracial enrollment has surged 73% since 2017, adding 21,312 students to become the state's fourth-largest racial group and reshaping how schools count their students.
charter-schools
From 59% to 83%: Charter Institute at Erskine's Graduation Rate Transformation
The Charter Institute at Erskine improved its aggregate graduation rate from 58.9% to 82.8% in six years, the largest improvement of any entity in South Carolina.
enrollment
SC's Coastal Growth Engine Just Stalled
Berkeley, Horry, and Charleston all flipped from growth to decline in 2026, joining 14 other districts in a coordinated reversal.
district-spotlight
Fort Mill's 8.5% Chronic Rate Shows What's Possible in South Carolina
Fort Mill School District maintains the lowest chronic absenteeism of any large SC district, with even its most disadvantaged students below the state average.
equity
South Carolina's White-Black Graduation Gap Peaked During COVID. Now It's Narrowing.
Black students in SC reached an 83.5% graduation rate in 2025, gaining 5.4 points in four years and narrowing the white-Black gap from a COVID peak of 8.8 to 5.8 points.
special-populations
South Carolina's English Learner Population Surged 39% in Seven Years
LEP enrollment surged 39% in seven years while total enrollment grew just 2.3%. Jasper County leads the state at 45%, and the growth spans coast to Upstate.
