District Spotlight
Ralston's Quiet Collapse: From 90% to 77% Inside the Omaha Ring
Ralston Public Schools has declined from 90% to 76.9% over seven years. The enclave inside Omaha now sits closer to OPS than to the state average.
Nebraska
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Nebraska, grounded in Nebraska Department of Education data.
Gretna Led Nebraska's Large Districts With a 99.3% Graduation Rate
Gretna graduated 414 of 417 students on time in 2025, ranking first among 11 Nebraska districts with cohorts of at least 400 students.
57% of Nebraska District Rows Hit 95%, but They Enrolled 28% of the Cohort
Nebraska had 128 district graduation rows at 95% or higher in 2025, but those districts represented 28.2% of the students in the usable district-row cohort.
One in Three Males at Omaha Public Schools Doesn't Graduate on Time
The OPS male graduation rate has been below 70% for six consecutive years. The 2025 gender gap was 10.3 points, 2.4 times the state average, and 664 OPS males did not finish on time.
Foster Care, Homeless, LEP: Nebraska's Three-Tier Graduation Floor
Foster care youth graduate at 55%, English learners at 52%, students who are currently homeless at 62%. Nebraska's most vulnerable populations form a graduation floor 26 to 36 points below the state average.
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Equity
Special Education's COVID Scar: Nebraska's Widest Gap Expanded, Then Slowly Healed
Nebraska's special education graduation rate dropped nearly 4 points during COVID, widening the gap to 22.5 points. Five years later, the rate has barely returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Equity
Nebraska's Tribal Districts: Where 9 in 10 Students Are Chronically Absent
Three Nebraska school districts on the Omaha and Winnebago reservations have chronic absenteeism rates from 54% to 90% -- the highest in the state by a wide margin.
Equity
The Tribal Gap: Umo N Ho N Nation's 57% Graduation Rate Is Nebraska's Lowest
Umo N Ho N Nation Public Schools graduated about 57% of its 2025 cohort, the state's lowest, after years near the middle. Winnebago held at 80%. The statewide Native American rate trails white students by about 20 points.
District Spotlight
The Omaha Metro Donut: 27.8 Percentage Points Separate the Core from Its Suburbs
Gretna graduates 99.3% of its seniors. Omaha Public Schools, just across a municipal line, graduates 71.5%. The 27.8-point gap maps onto the most visible divide in Nebraska education.
Absence
One in Three Nebraska Seniors Is Chronically Absent
Nebraska's 12th-grade chronic absenteeism rate was 37.2% in 2024-25, more than double the kindergarten rate and nearly triple the third-grade rate.
Equity
Nearly Half of Nebraska's English Learners Don't Graduate on Time — and the Crisis Is Accelerating
Nebraska's English learner graduation rate has fallen from 64% to 52% over 14 years while the overall rate barely moved. The 41-point gap to white students is the state's widest equity chasm.
Absence
Only 28% of Nebraska Districts Have Recovered to Pre-COVID Chronic Absenteeism Levels
Nearly three in four Nebraska districts still have higher chronic absenteeism than before COVID -- and not a single large district has recovered.
District Spotlight
Grand Island Hits All-Time Low at 75.9% — District Says It's a One-Year Blip
Grand Island Public Schools posted a 75.9% graduation rate in 2025, its worst on record. The district says an ELL enrollment policy change created a one-time bubble, but the underlying trend was already declining.
Equity
The 38-Point Divide: Bennington at 7%, Omaha at 45% -- Separated by 15 Miles
Nine Omaha-area school districts, separated by minutes on the highway, produce chronic absenteeism rates ranging from 7% to 45% -- a 38-point chasm.
Grade Shift
Nebraska Has More Seniors Than Kindergartners
Grade 12 hit an all-time high of 26,008 in 2025-26 while kindergarten dropped to 21,275, near its early-2000s trough, widening a gap that signals a shrinking enrollment pipeline.
