As 2026 begins, a new fact sheet published by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) on California’s K-12 student population provides insights that can help inform local educational agencies on statewide trends.
Overall, enrollment in California public schools has decreased by 7 percent in the last decade with the most significant drops happening between 2019 and 2021. About 5.8 million students are currently served, including 178,000 transitional kindergarten students.
“Enrollment changes vary by region. About 70 percent of districts have faced enrollment declines, with the biggest declines in large coastal districts such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Long Beach, and San Francisco,” according to the fact sheet. “Enrollment grew in some Central Valley districts, the Sierra foothills, and some northern parts of the state.”
Students who identify as Latino make up 60 percent of the population followed by their white (20 percent), Asian (10 percent) and Black (5 percent) peers. “While the number of Latino students has fallen, the share is growing,” the fact sheet states.
Some other demographic information includes:
- Seventeen percent of students are English learners (ELs)
- The top five languages spoken by ELs are Spanish (80 percent), Mandarin, Vietnamese, Persian and Russian, with the share of Russian speakers almost doubling in the past 10 years
- Sixty-four percent are socioeconomically disadvantaged; 4 percent experience homelessness and 0.5 percent are foster youth
- Fourteen percent of the population are students with disabilities
- An estimated 3 percent of students may be undocumented, and 22 percent may have at least one parent who is undocumented
Although declines in enrollment in the state’s public schools are steepest among ELs, linguistic diversity is increasing, according to the PPIC resource. “The state’s enrollment declines are largely concentrated among multilingual learners,” according to the fact sheet. “Enrollment fell by 15 percent among students who were current or former English learners; enrollment changes among students who only speak English at home were minimal.”
Since the pandemic, an influx of families are opting to enroll their children in charter schools or home school programs.
Ongoing changes to the population will create challenges for public school systems, according to the fact sheet.
“California’s student population is likely to continue to decrease, with larger declines in counties with higher concentrations of English learner students. At the same time, the diversity of EL students is increasing, as are rates of homelessness and socioeconomic disadvantage,” it states. “Districts will have to balance serving fewer students efficiently (e.g., through school consolidation) while supporting diverse and high-need communities effectively. Because of California’s budgeting rules, per-student funding may increase in the future.”
