Ferndale High School

Ferndale · Humboldt County · Ferndale Unified
Public Humboldt County 🏛 Ferndale Unified → ~35 seniors CDS 1275374…
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Compare with peers

Most similar nearby schools

Academy of the Redwoods → Pacific View Charter 2.0 → East High (continuation) → Redwood Coast Montessori → Northcoast Preparatory And Performing Arts Academy → Compare all similar →

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
166 (2018)145 (2026)
-12.7%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
37 (2018)33 (2026)
-10.8%

If this trend holds (-1.7%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~143 -2 $0
3 yr (2029) ~138 -7 $0
5 yr (2031) ~133 -12 $0

Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.

Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25

Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Humboldt County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Critical
Sharp demand downturn hidden by elite retention.

Ferndale High School's enrollment is shrinking far faster than Humboldt County (school -10.8% vs. county +41.0%). Stability of 93.9% means every family you keep is one fewer; the leverage is at recruitment, not retention. This is the case the high stability number alone would hide.

-10.8%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+41.0%  Humboldt County baseline
-51.8pp  gap vs. county
93.9%  retention (county median 88.7%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
93.9%
139 of 148 students

9 of 148 students who enrolled at Ferndale High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (6.1% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Humboldt County median
88.7% · school is in the 100th percentile of 12 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 85th percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

White (104) 94.2%
Socio. disadvantaged (77) 92.2%
Hispanic / Latino (34) 94.1%
Students w/ disabilities (22) 86.4%

Nearest peer high schools

Academy of the Redwoods 91.9% Pacific View Charter 2.0 66.7% East High (continuation) 48.0% Redwood Coast Montessori 82.8% Northcoast Preparatory And Performing Arts Academy 85.7%

Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.

Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25

Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.

Chronic absent
22.1%
32 of 145 students

Absenteeism is in the typical CA HS range. Worth monitoring alongside the demand and retention signals above.

Humboldt County median
26.6% · school is better than 73% of 11 HS
Statewide median
22.9%
Chronic absenteeism by year (raw %)

Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).

SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025

Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.

ELA — met or exceeded
n = 33
51.5%
incl. 21.2% exceeded
+5.6 pts above Humboldt County median (45.9%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 33
30.3%
incl. 12.1% exceeded
+9.3 pts above Humboldt County median (21.0%) · CA median 21.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 53.6%

Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.

Student composition — 2025-26

HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.

Race / ethnicity

White 73% +5.4
Hispanic / Latino 19% -7.8
Two or more 5% +4.0
American Indian 2%
Black / African Am. 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 34% -26.4

Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.

District financial profile — Ferndale Unified (FY2020)

From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.

Total revenue
$7.8M
+13.9% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$17,090
454 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 53.8%
Local: 31.8%
Federal: 14.4%
Instruction share
62.2%
of current spending · $9,614/pupil
Long-term debt
$0.5M
-24.8% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($M)
Total expenditure by year ($M)

Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the Ferndale Unified as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).

University of California outcomes · Class of 2024
UC Reach
N/A
UC Application Reach
N/A
None applications
UC Admit Rate
N/A
None / None applications
UC Yield Rate
N/A
None enrolled of None admitted
Yield vs. Enrollment Reach: Yield answers "of UC admits, what % chose UC?" — denominator is just the admits. A small admitted cohort can post a low yield even when the school sends a healthy share of its class to UC.
UC Enrollment Reach
N/A
None enrollees / 35 seniors
Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what % ended up at UC?" — denominator is everyone. High Yield with low Enrollment Reach is common at elite privates: most admits matriculate, but the school sends most of its class to non-UC selective colleges.
Student-Counselor Ratio
145:1
1.0 FTE counselors · 145 students
In context: CA median 338:1 · 193 fewer students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.
A-G Completion
31%
11 of 36 graduates · 2023-24 cohort
In context: CA median 54.5% · -23.9 pp vs. median · Humboldt Co. 35.1%.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
N/A
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
35
CDE grade 12 (exact)
Total School Enrollment
133
All grades · CDE Census Day
Economic Connectedness
0.96
43rd percentile in CA · cross‑class friendships

Ferndale High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · Ferndale · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 11% (37→33 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of -1%.
  • At its recent rate (-1.7%/yr), enrollment projects to ~138 by 2029 — about 7 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

145 students (2026)
~138 projected (2029)
at -1.7%/yr

That's about 7 fewer students. At per-student funding of $ per student, that's roughly $0 in annual state funding at risk.

Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423 per ADA) — adjust to your district's actual per-pupil figure. Projection extrapolates the recent annual rate — not a forecast of intent.

Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools

School Type Size UC Reach Enroll. trend
Ferndale High School Public 145 -11%
Peer-group median 57.0% -1%
Academy of the Redwoods Public 151 51.1% +58%
Pacific View Charter 2.0 Public 130 +33%
East High (continuation) Public 74 -2%
Redwood Coast Montessori Public 205 +150%
Northcoast Preparatory And Performing Arts Academy Public 109 -29%
Six Rivers Charter School Public 107 +21%
Northern United - Humboldt Charter Public 349 -6%
Zoe Barnum High Public 49 -27%
Agnes J. Johnson Charter Public 79 +0%
Mendocino High School Public 159 63.0% -25%

UC Reach = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class (can exceed 100% when students are admitted to multiple campuses). Enrollment trend = first-to-latest grade-12 change on file. Similar schools matched on proximity, size, type. Methodology →

Campus Breakdown — 2024

Campus Applicants Admits Enrollees Admit Rate UC Reach Yield Avg GPA (App) Avg GPA (Adm)
UC Berkeley → Elite
UCLA → Elite
UC Santa Barbara → Selective
UC Davis →
⚠ Campus-level totals may count one student admitted to multiple UC campuses more than once. Admit Volume metrics are not the same as UC Reach, which requires unique-student counts. See methodology →

What This Means

Note: admit counts used here are campus-level totals. A student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted twice. When UCOP unique-student data becomes available it will be loaded automatically and the labels will update.
Compare with other schools → See Humboldt County rankings →

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