Enrollment in California public schools has declined for the seventh consecutive year, with students from low-income and homeless families increasing as many school districts across the state face financial pressure to shrink.
Perhaps the most distinctive number across the state is the comparison between 12th grade enrollment (488,295 students) and 1st grade-384,822. This is more than 20% of the difference between class sizes leaving the school and the size of the class, starting with the public school system.
An encouraging note is the growing number of transitional kindergarten students, a new rating for 4-year-olds.
Public school enrollment rates for this school year were officially collected last fall but were released Wednesday, with a total of 5,806,221 students, down 31,469 students, down 31,469 students, down 31,469 from the previous year, according to the California Department of Education.
"These losses largely reflect the fact that school-age children in the state are now dwindling," said Thomas Dee, an education professor and economist at Stanford University. "This population decline is due to lower birth rates and net migration of families with children from California -- for example, due to housing costs and increased work at work."
"The most striking aspect of these data is that students who fled public schools at the beginning of the Covid-19-19 pandemic have not returned," Di said.
According to the state Department of Education, the number of students from low-income families has increased by nearly 1%, and the number of homeless students has increased by more than 9%.
Enrollment changes greatly by region – Schools in some regions shrink as others grow or maintain.
Over the past two decades, the number of unified enrollment in Los Angeles has dropped by nearly half, from 747,009 in 2003-04 to 387,152 this year. Since 2016-17, LA Unified enrollment has dropped by nearly 30%.
During the same period, the state's decline range was less than 7%.
Among the relatively few school districts, among those growing around the same period, Elk Grove unified Sacramento County, Clovis unified in Fresno County and Roseville City in Placer County.
Reducing enrollment challenges the school system statewide because it means they earn less income without corresponding expenses and staffing costs. The decline in enrollment has ended the federal pandemic aid and overpopular state tax revenue, which has led to cuts in programs and services.
For example, on Monday, the unified board of Santa Ana voted for 262 jobs when enrollment fell and a $154 million budget deficit. Officials described the layoffs as difficult but necessary, as the decline in enrollment rates is expected to continue to decline.
In a budget speech this week, Los Angeles Unification officials said they want to avoid layoffs but need to significantly reduce their workforce over the next two years, including through this way, such as not replacing workers leaving, reallocating employees to jobs with low pay or higher advantage and ending positions when vacancies are open.
The biggest drop in enrollment across the state over the past decade has been largely overlapping, but not entirely related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The biggest single-year decline was a year of pandemic, according to state data.
State officials noted that enrollment in private schools has also declined from the previous year. Officials say charter schools have risen, but are not enough to explain the overall enrollment of traditional TK to 12-grade schools.
But Dee said the long-term picture shows something different.
“The loss of enrollment in public schools also reflects a lasting increase in private and home school enrollment,” he said. “The combination of private and home school enrollment is more than 4% higher than when the pandemic began.”
Statewide, the decline in enrollment rates has also occurred in recent years, even as the state adds new grade levels, transitional kindergartens or TKs. TK student numbers grew by 17%, from 151,491 to 177,570. The state extends the age range for 4-year-olds who can attend as part of an upgrade for up to a year, which could account for the majority of multiple enrollments. Starting in the fall, the new grade will be open to all 4-year-olds for the first time.
As the number of students in transition kindergartens grew, the number of enrollment in transition kindergartens still did not meet expectations. Gov. Gavin Newsom sets an ambitious goal to enroll 400,000 students in the 2025-26 school year.
However, the governor’s revision of his proposed 2025-26 budget in May, the end-point program for TK funds fell by $300 million next year, mainly due to the state’s expected reduction in TK enrollment.
National Vice President. Tony Thurmond's public guidance said TK's progress was encouraging.
"While we have more work to do, TK's dramatic growth is encouraging, showing that providing rigorous and quality programs can be a key component in bringing more families back to our schools," Thurmond said.
Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at UC Berkeley, praised the governor’s “heartfelt ambitions” when authorizing a state-funded transition kindergarten, “but he did not implement it in terms of implementation.”
It is not clear how many children enrolled in school are new to early education and how many have already participated in other government-funded programs.
In California, TK and kindergarten enrollment is not mandatory.
"This is good news, and there are 26,000 more California families looking for affordable preschool classes, but overall, overall, whether kindergarten enrollment rates are increasing statewide," Fuller said.
According to the state’s Treasury Department estimates, about 43% of 4-year-old children in the state are now enrolled in school.