Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Golden State
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of California, grounded in California Department of Education data.
Among 1,004 stable-ID districts with published totals at both endpoints, 320 enrolled at least as many students in 2025-26 as in 2018-19. Statewide enrollment fell by 74,961 in the latest year.
California's special education graduation rate reached 77.1% in 2025, but the gap with the state average remains 10.7 points.
Twin Rivers Unified's non-charter chronic absenteeism rate was 30.4% in 2024-25, seventh highest among 59 California districts with at least 20,000 eligible students on that basis.
A spreadsheet expedition through 60,598 public schools ends in Bakersfield: gold for the Patriots of Independence Elementary, silver for the Stars of Freedom Middle, bronze for the Eagles of Liberty High.
California's English learner graduation rate surged from 70.9% to 79.7% but the 85,815-student cohort still sees 1 in 5 fail to graduate, with vast district variation.
San Francisco Unified's Black-student chronic absenteeism rate was 54.6% in 2024-25, 47.5 points above the Asian-student rate on the same non-charter basis.
Sacramento County's non-charter chronic absenteeism rate was 21.9% in 2024-25, 8.4 points above 2018-19, with an 18.3-point spread among its largest districts.
In 47 California districts with meaningful sample sizes, Black students graduate at higher rates than white students, challenging default assumptions about racial gaps.
Chronic absenteeism dropped from a 30% peak to 19.4%, but improvement slowed to just 1 point last year. At that pace, a return to the 12.1% pre-pandemic baseline would take about eight more years.
Anaheim Union High rose from 86.8% to 94.4% across four straight reported gains, ranking second among California districts with 2025 graduating cohorts of 4,000 or more.
Pacific Islander, Native American, and Black students all have chronic rates above 31%. Five groups have rates above white students, and all five gaps remain wider than in 2019.
While every other equity gap in California graduation data narrowed since 2018, the student who is currently homeless gap widened from 7.5 to 10.7 points amid a growing cohort.
Charters enrolled 12.66 percent of California public students in 2025-26 as district enrollment fell far more than charter enrollment grew.
The nation's second-largest school district has 126,481 chronically absent students -- a population larger than most cities' entire school systems.
Nearly 40% of California districts recorded their highest-ever graduation rate in 2025, including six of the largest, while only 37 hit all-time lows.
