La Sierra High

Public Tulare County 🏛 Tulare County Office of Education → CDS 5410546…
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Most similar nearby schools

Sequoia High → Accelerated Charter High → Visalia Charter Independent Study → Laton High School → Strathmore High School → Compare all similar →

No UC admissions data on file for La Sierra High.

This school doesn't appear in UCOP's source-school records (it may send few or no applicants to UC). Its enrollment trend and similar-school comparison are still below.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
251 (2018)188 (2026)
-25.1%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
42 (2018)20 (2026)
-52.4%

If this trend holds (-3.5%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~181 -7 $0
3 yr (2029) ~169 -19 $0
5 yr (2031) ~157 -31 $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 Tulare County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Critical
Compounding decline on both vectors.

Enrollment -52.4% vs. county +2.2% AND stability (58.1%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem.

-52.4%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+2.2%  Tulare County baseline
-54.6pp  gap vs. county
58.1%  retention (county median 85.8%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
58.1%
86 of 148 students

62 of 148 students who enrolled at La Sierra High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (41.9% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Tulare County median
85.8% · school is in the 32nd percentile of 31 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 21st percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Hispanic / Latino (194) 62.4%
Socio. disadvantaged (182) 59.9%
English learners (45) 62.2%
Students w/ disabilities (27) 55.6%

Nearest peer high schools

Sequoia High 27.4% Accelerated Charter High 22.4% Visalia Charter Independent Study 50.7% Laton High School 95.8% Strathmore High School 82.4%

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
14.4%
20 of 139 students

Absenteeism is up 3.4 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Tulare County median
17.1% · school is better than 68% of 31 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 = 20
65.0%
incl. 20.0% exceeded
+7.9 pts above Tulare County median (57.1%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 20
10.0%
incl. 0.0% exceeded
-9.2 pts vs. Tulare County median (19.2%) · 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

Hispanic / Latino 87% +7.7
White 8% -3.6
Two or more 2% -2.5
Black / African Am. 1%
American Indian 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 71% -11.8

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 — Tulare County Office of Education (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
$268.8M
+14.8% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$172,203
1,561 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 53.7%
Local: 17.1%
Federal: 29.2%
Instruction share
43.7%
of current spending · $44,811/pupil
Long-term debt
$34.2M
-1.4% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 Tulare County Office of Education 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).

La Sierra High — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 52% (42→20 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of +1%.
  • At its recent rate (-3.5%/yr), enrollment projects to ~169 by 2029 — about 19 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

188 students (2026)
~169 projected (2029)
at -3.5%/yr

That's about 19 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
La Sierra High Public 188 -52%
Peer-group median 7.9% +1%
Sequoia High Public 241 -29%
Accelerated Charter High Public 151 -1%
Visalia Charter Independent Study Public 551 -15%
Laton High School Public 175 7.9% +3%
Strathmore High School Public 292 7.0% +10%
Citrus High Public 145 -7%
Sierra Vista High (continuation) Public 96 +60%
Reedley Middle College Hs Public 267 41.1% +109%
Ronald Reagan Academy Public 89 -26%
Porterville Military Academy Public 285 +52%

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 →

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