The take-home message from this accompanying graph of public school enrollment in California may seem to be the overall rise in California’s student population from 1994 to 2011. Last school year, California’s public schools enrolled 6.2 million students, which is about 1 million more students than in 1994. That’s an 18% increase.

At closer examination, however, the slight decrease from 2005 to 2011 is also a noteworthy trend. Across California, there were about 105,000 fewer students enrolled in public schools last school year than in 2005. And of 1013 school districts with both 2005 and 2011 data, more than half enrolled fewer students last school year than they did in 2005 (see data for your school district). 60% of counties experienced enrollment declines, too; rural counties were the hardest hit with enrollment declines.

In general, as school enrollment decreases, so does average daily attendance (ADA). Declines in ADA result in decreased per pupil funding from the state.

Some other noteworthy facts from the public school enrollment data recently updated on kidsdata.org:

• According to 2011 data, more than half (55%) of California’s public school students are in five Southern Californian counties (Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino).

• In the ’10-’11 school year, Los Angeles County alone made up over 25% of public school enrollment for California; on its own, the Los Angeles Unified School District made up over 10%.

• From 1994 to 2011, enrollment growth was particularly notable in two counties – Placer (74%) and Riverside (69%).

Posted by Andy Krackov

Tags: New Data

Last school year, more than half (51%) of students in California’s public schools were Hispanic/Latino. But this hasn’t always been the case; Hispanic/Latino students only recently became a majority of California’s public school population.

Over the past two decades, in fact, we’ve seen notable shifts in the racial/ethnic composition of California’s public school students, as evidenced by this graph (click the bar graph tab, then press play).

Here in California, about three out of every four students in public schools are students of color. As noted, more than half of these students were Hispanic/Latino in 2011, up from 37% in 1994. By comparison, the proportion of students who were Caucasian/White dropped from 42% in 1994 to 27% in 2011.

Map Racial/Ethnic Enrollment Data for Your Community
Following are maps providing local-level data on public school enrollment in California. In each map, you can use the “Show Regions” menu to toggle between school district and county-level data.

• African-American/Black Students
  In California, Solano County (17%) and Alameda and Sacramento counties (both at 14%) had the largest percentage of African American/Black public school students last school year. See map >>

• Asian-American Students
  Among California counties, San Francisco (39%) and Santa Clara (27%) had the largest percentage of Asian American public school students last school year. See map >>

• Caucasian/White Students
  The California counties where 60% or more of students are Caucasian/White all are in Northern California, according to data from last school year. See map >>

• Filipino Students
  Among California counties, Solano (9%), San Mateo (8%), and San Francisco (5%) had the largest percentage of Filipino public school students last school year. See map >>

• Hispanic/Latino Students
  Among California counties, Imperial (89%) and Monterey (74%) had the largest percentage of Hispanic/Latino public school students last school year. See map >>

• Multiracial Students
  Multiracial students make up 1.8% of public school students in California, according to 2011 data.  See map >>

• Native American/Alaskan Native Students
  Across California, there were 43,546 Native American/Alaskan Native public school students last school year. See map >>

• Pacific Islander Students
  San Mateo County had the largest percentage of Pacific Islander public school students in 2011 (2.5%). See map >>

Posted by Andy Krackov

Tags: New Data

How many California kids have asthma? Maybe more than you thought.

As the most common chronic condition among children in the U.S., asthma affects roughly 14% of California children ages 1 to 17 — about 1.3 million kids. These data, collected by the California Health Interview Survey, recently were updated on kidsdata.org and are available for most counties.

Also just updated, the rate of asthma hospitalizations among California children ages 0-17 increased slightly from 2008-2009, but is down overall since 1998. Thanks to the California Department of Public Health for these data.

Here are a few more highlights:

• Asthma hospitalization rates in 2009 were three times higher for California children ages 0-4 than for children ages 5-17. In 2009, more California children under age 5 were hospitalized for asthma (6,288) than all older children (those ages 5-17) combined.

• Among California counties with available data, the percentage of children diagnosed with asthma varied widely, from 8% to 31%.

• Among California counties with available data, Alameda, Fresno and Imperial had the highest childhood asthma hospitalization rates from ’06 to ’09.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Tags: New Data