After the onset of the pandemic, the Class of 2020 at Hawaii’s public high schools turned out the state’s highest-ever on-time graduation rate, but only half of students picking up diplomas immediately enrolled in college — marking a concerning decline.

For the past several years, the college-going rate had been holding steady at about 55%, according to state figures in the College and Career Readiness Indicators Report recently published by the Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education.

The post-graduation outlook for the Class of 2021 is still taking shape, but clearly, this set of seniors has endured an especially challenging school year. While 2020’s grads had just their final fourth quarter disrupted by campus closures and the abrupt switch to online classes, this year’s seniors are still contending with schedules scrambled by coronavirus-related matters.

Last spring, Hawaii P-20, along with education partners and others, launched “Next Steps to Your Future,” which connected more than 2,000 students with free summer career exploration courses at Hawaii’s community colleges and access to academic counselors for one-on-one support through virtual meetings and text messages. Also, participants had opportunity to apply for scholarships funded by Hawaii Community Foundation and First Hawaiian Bank.

It’s heartening that this program is now expanding its reach in helping the Class of 2021 transition to higher education. More of this type of collaborative effort will be needed in coming years as students tasked with recouping pandemic-related learning losses move through the state’s K-12 system. As of this year’s second quarter, 21% of elementary schoolers were receiving a failing grade in English language arts. In math, 15% were failing.

Further, according to last month’s state Department of Education metrics, more than one-quarter of public school seniors were “off-track” to graduate. On Oahu, the Kailua-Kalaheo and Castle-Kahuku complexes had the highest rates, with a spring diploma in doubt for 36% of 12th-graders. Statewide, the Hana-Lahainaluna-Lanai-Molokai complex had the highest — and most heartbreaking — rate, with 67% of seniors at risk of missing the cut for commencement.

Given plenty of evidence that the virtual classroom setup has contributed to higher levels of failing grades and heightened risks for students disconnecting or dropping out, the state must provide a comprehensive program of catch-up courses this summer, if not sooner. A concerted outreach should target economically disadvantaged students who have been hard hit due to obstacles, such as lacking easy access to online learning tools.

P-20’s College and Career Readiness report found that among Class of 2020 students in that bracket, 38% went straight to college after graduating, compared with 44% in 2019. While the report found college-going declines affecting all race/ethnicities, the drop was largest among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, 7% and 5%, respectively.

Addressing challenges ahead, P-20’s executive director, Stephen Schatz, rightly pointed out: “We should assume that the pandemic had an affect on all of our kids’ academic progress and mental health — that should be a base-line assumption.” He added, “This past year was not equivalent to a normal year of school. We as the education community need to take action based on that premise.”

Hawaii’s slips echo nationwide tracking — preliminary data shows that the college-going rate fell to 28% for the Class of 2020 from 35% for 2019. For Hawaii, these latest trends point to a need to redouble efforts to guide students toward higher ed, which holds great potential to expand the scope of their opportunities to thrive on future career paths and contribute to the local economy.