DataQuest Highlights

In April 2026, the California Department of Education (CDE) released the 2025–26 Annual Enrollment Report on DataQuest. This report showcases enrollment data based on a snapshot of California’s Transitional Kindergarten through grade twelve (TK-12) student counts taken on Census Day (the first Wednesday in October).

To access further information about the above report, including key takeaways, resources, and highlights from previously released DataQuest reports, select the links below:

2025–26 Annual Enrollment Report
Resources
Additional Highlights

2025–26 Annual Enrollment Reports

The Annual Enrollment Report displays the TK–12 school enrollment by student race/ethnicity, program participation, and grade levels. DataQuest users can examine these data by overall statewide totals or by county, district, or school. The Annual Enrollment Flyer (PDF) provides a high-level overview of the enrollment trends across the state. Refer to the 2025-26 Annual Enrollment Growth by County page for information on statewide enrollment growth by county reflected in the flyer.

Key Takeaways

• Like all other 39 states that have reported as of March 26, 2026, California has experienced a decline in enrollment. California’s enrollment has declined by approximately 1.3 percent to a total of 5,731,260 students enrolled in California public schools.
• In 2025-26, school enrollment declined across all school types, including traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, and home schools.
  • Non-Charter/Traditional Schools declined 1.4 percent
  • Charter Schools declined 0.3 percent
  • Private Schools declined 6.6 percent*
  • Homeschools declined 3.7 percent*

*Private school and homeschool data reflect internal counts as of February 2026.

• This long-term, national trend is reflective of the decline in birth rates, which hit a new record low in California during fiscal year 2025 and have seen a 30 percent decline since 2008. (Public Policy Institute of California, 2026)
  • All demographic groups experienced a decline in enrollment with the exception of the Asian, Two or More, and Not Reported groups.
    • The numbers of Hispanic students dropped the most with a decrease of 1.5 percent (48,064 students), followed by White with a decrease of 2.7 percent (31,076 students).
• During the 2025‒26 academic year, TK saw an enrollment increase of 20.1 percent (35,743 students) to a total of 213,313 students enrolled.
  • These gains were spread across the state with many districts reporting increases in TK enrollment as California implemented the final year of TK expansion to provide universal eligibility for all four-year-olds.
• The Students with Disabilities (SWD) program group saw a continuation of its gradual gain of students, increasing by 2.9 percent to a total of 850,822 enrolled students.
• Overall numbers of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged (SED) students decreased along with the general population, however SED students continue to represent roughly 60 percent of the student population.

Resources

Provided below are several CDE web pages and communication links to end-of-year DataQuest topics:

• DataQuest Schedule: Provides an overview of upcoming DataQuest reports expected for release in the coming year.
• DataQuest Update: Informs users about released reports, new reports, downloadable data files, enhancements, changes to DataQuest, and tips on how to use DataQuest.
  

Additional Highlights

The DataQuest Highlights web page is continuously updated with the most recent publicly available DataQuest reports. Please select the link below to access the previous highlighted reports:

• 2024–25 End-of-Year Reports
• 2024–25 Certificated Staff Reports
• 2024–25 Annual Enrollment Reports
• 2023–24 End-of-Year Reports