In 2024–25, enrollment in California schools is 5,806,221 students, a decline of 0.5 percent compared to the year prior. A significant part of the slowing is a year-over-year increase in transitional kindergarten (TK) enrollment of 17.2 percent. Eighty-five percent of all local educational agencies in the state now offer a TK program. Another initiative contributing to stemming the enrollment decline is dual language immersion programs, which have seen a 39 percent increase since 2018–19.
In its analysis of the data, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) notes that even this increase in TK did not meet the state’s projections and was 17,000 students lower than expected (43,000 versus 26,000 respectively). Kindergarten enrollment also did not meet state projections for the year.
In a report on TK expansion, PPIC researchers noted that “in 2023–24, TK served over 150,000 students statewide out of an estimated 215,000 eligible children — about 70 percent participation. While this is a significant increase compared to prior years, the rate has fallen by 13 percentage points from 2018–19 and by 7 percentage points from 2021–22.”
At the same time, enrollment in later grades exceeded state projections, with high school enrollment nearly 27,000 students higher than expected.
In a presentation, the CDE noted there has not been a commensurate increase in private or charter schools, although the latter has seen a small bump.
According to PPIC, enrollment has fallen in almost three-quarters of districts since the onset of the pandemic. In half of those districts, enrollment has fallen by more than 5 percent over the past five years. “This means that declines are affecting larger shares of students: the 57 percent of districts that saw declines in 2024–25 enrolled roughly 70 percent of the state’s students.”
Disaggregating the data shows that enrollment declined for all ethnicities except Asian, which increased by 1.8 percent, and two or more races, which grew by 2.7 percent. In decreasing enrollment trends, African American students declined by 2 percent, American Indian by 2.4 percent, Filipino by 1.6 percent, Hispanic by 0.5 percent, Pacific Islander by 2.3 percent and white by 2 percent.
Several vulnerable student groups saw an increase in numbers, with socioeconomically disadvantaged students growing by 0.9 percent, students with disabilities increasing by 3.4 percent, migrant youth increasing by 4.2 percent and homeless youth growing by 9.3 percent. Meanwhile, the English learner population decreased by 6.1 percent and foster youth fell by 7.9 percent.