Vanishing students: K-12 enrollment plunges to lowest level in two decades

DASHING HOPES FOR a rebound, K-12 enrollment has fallen sharply again this year, by an additional 110,300 students, pushing total public school enrollment in California below 6 million for the first time since 1999-2000.

The 1.8 percent enrollment decline, on top of the 2.6 percent record drop in 2020-21, is a combined loss of 271,000 students since COVID struck in spring 2020. Enrollment as of Census Day, always the first Wednesday of October, was 5.89 million students this year; five years ago, it was 6.23 million.