photo by: YouTube screenshot

Lawrence school board members receive a presentation on the district's four-year, on-time graduation rate on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026.

The Lawrence school district’s four-year, on-time graduation rate has improved to 88.7% in 2025, however, there are disparities among many student groups the district hopes to focus on moving forward.

The graduation rate is the percentage of students who earn a high school diploma within four years of starting ninth grade. The district’s rate has improved by 1.4 percentage points from 2024, and has sustained an upward trend since the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, the graduation rate was 82.8% – meaning the rate has improved by almost 6 percentage points over a six-year period.

“We are proud that the graduation rate overall … continues to rise over time,” Superintendent Jeanice Swift told board members on Monday.

However, Swift said there are disparities that persist.

“While the overall graduation rate has improved from 2019 to 2025, it is also true that a disparity of outcomes persist … particularly in five student groups where we are focused on our effort,” Swift said.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

The Lawrence school district’s four-year, on-time graduation rate from 2019-2025.

At Monday’s presentation, the district identified one of the primary groups of concern to be English language learners. Their graduation rate fell from 88.7% in 2019 to 75.5% in 2025. In 2019, the group’s graduation rate was 5.5 percentage points higher than the districtwide rate; by 2025, it was 13.2 percentage points below the districtwide rate.

In addition, the Hispanic student graduation-rate gap increased somewhat between 2019 and 2025. In 2019, Hispanic students had an 83.5% four-year, on-time graduation rate, compared with the districtwide rate of 82.8%. So Hispanic students were actually 0.7 percentage points above the district overall.

Meanwhile, in 2025, the Hispanic graduation rate was 80.7% – 8 percentage points below the district overall. Board member Shannon Kimball asked if federal immigration enforcement has played a role in the widening graduation gap for this group of students in the last two years.

Swift said there was a possibility it could be related, but the district didn’t know for certain. She added that there has also been a smaller number of Hispanic students enrolling at the district.

“I would not be surprised with the correlation over the graduation rate, but I’m not saying that we have that,” Swift said.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

The Lawrence school district’s four-year, on-time graduation rate organized by different student groups from 2019-2025.

White students had a graduation rate of 91.6%, compared with 85.3% for African American students, 82.6% for American Indian/Alaska Native students, 81% for multiracial students and 80.7% for Hispanic students. The district also reported that Asian students had a 100% graduation rate, though that group included fewer than 25 students.

While there are areas for improvement, there has been progress in the number of students graduating with disabilities and students receiving free or reduced meals, Monday’s presentation from district staff said.

From 2019 to 2025, the graduation rate for students with disabilities increased 17.4 percentage points, from 60.7% to 78.1%, while the rate for students receiving free or reduced-price meals increased 10.2 percentage points, from 70.7% to 80.9%.

In comparison to the rest of the state, last year, Kansas introduced a new state calculation that differs from the longstanding federal method. The federal calculation was used to get to the district’s graduation rate of 88.7%. Under the new Kansas calculation, the rate was 89.9%.

The main difference between the Kansas and the federal calculations is who is included in the four-year cohort. The federal calculation includes students who transfer into the district with enough credit deficiencies that they are not on track to graduate with their original cohort, while the Kansas calculation excludes those credit-deficient transfer students.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

The Lawrence school district’s four-year, on-time graduation rate for English language learners from 2019-2025.

Moving forward, the district hopes to focus on several areas intended to remove barriers to on-time graduation, including social-emotional and mental health supports, student engagement and motivation, attendance and truancy support, academic supports, credit recovery and a diploma completion program.

The district also plans to expand and connect different high school programming options, including Centennial Choice Campus and the Lawrence College & Career Center. Those programs are intended to offer students different learning environments and access to wraparound supports, career and technical education, college credit, work-based learning and other programming.

The broader goal is for students to graduate with a postsecondary plan and the skills, experiences, credentials and certifications needed to pursue it.

“We really are going to be featuring more experiences and program opportunities for students to spark their own interests, to connect to passions and purpose,” Swift said. “We’re really excited about getting students on pathways for their future beyond high school.”