San Luis Obispo High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Arroyo Grande High School → Atascadero High School → Paso Robles High School → Morro Bay High School → Nipomo High School → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+1.3%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,715 | +22 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,760 | +67 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,807 | +114 | $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 San Luis Obispo County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
San Luis Obispo High School outperformed San Luis Obispo County on enrollment (school +11.9% vs. county -1.4%) AND maintains 91.2% stability. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working. Chronic absenteeism is rising (21.0%, +10.7 pts since 2016-17) — a watch signal worth monitoring as a leading indicator.
153 of 1,730 students who enrolled at San Luis Obispo High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (8.8% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.
Stability by student group
Nearest peer high schools
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.
Absenteeism is up 10.7 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.
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.
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
Program subgroups
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 — San Luis Coastal 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.
Local: 74.3%
Federal: 10.1%
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 San Luis Coastal 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).
+22.0 pp above peer median (13.6%) · Ranked #1 of 9 similar schools
18.5%
13.6%
53.3%
35.6%
Higher than 79% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
San Luis Obispo High School's UC Reach of 35.6% is in the top quartile statewide (median 18.5%; top 25% bar 32.0%) — but it's still below the top-10% bar of 53.3%.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 102.7% — a gap of 67 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, San Luis Obispo High School's UC Reach is higher than 79% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
San Luis Obispo High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · San Luis Obispo · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, San Luis Obispo High School sits near the top of its similar-school group (ranked #1 of 9): 36% vs. a peer median of 14%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 10 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 12% (344→385 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -2%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+1.3%/yr); projects to ~1760 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Luis Obispo High School | Public | 1693 | 35.6% | +12% |
| Peer-group median | 13.6% | -2% | ||
| Arroyo Grande High School | Public | 1939 | 19.2% | -9% |
| Atascadero High School | Public | 1146 | 8.5% | -4% |
| Paso Robles High School | Public | 1962 | 13.6% | -8% |
| Morro Bay High School | Public | 771 | 25.7% | -8% |
| Nipomo High School | Public | 833 | 8.9% | +3% |
| Templeton High School | Public | 698 | 21.6% | +0% |
| Shafter High School | Public | 1670 | 6.7% | +24% |
| Wasco High | Public | 1656 | — | +3% |
| Santa Barbara Senior High | Public | 1769 | — | -17% |
| Ernest Righetti High School | Public | 2472 | 13.7% | +24% |
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 →
Admit rate vs. CA peer average, by campus ⓘ
How does this school's admit rate at each UC compare to other CA schools whose applicant pool averages the same GPA?
| Campus | Applicant GPA (avg) | Actual admit rate | CA peer avg | Δ | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 4.07 | 16.0% | 14.0% | +2.0pp | On target |
| UCLA | 4.06 | 6.5% | 9.6% | -3.1pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 4.02 | 14.8% | 19.5% | -4.7pp | On target |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.00 | 26.3% | 32.9% | -6.6pp | Under |
| UC Irvine | 4.00 | 49.3% | 26.4% | +22.9pp | Over |
| UC Davis | 4.03 | 48.1% | 33.1% | +15.0pp | Over |
Where San Luis Obispo High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (25.5% actual vs. 22.6% expected).
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data — applicant/admit totals may count a student at multiple campuses more than once.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 100 | 16 | 11 | 16.0% | 4.1% | 68.8% | 4.07 | 4.28 |
| UCLA → Elite | 92 | 6 | 3 | 6.5% | 1.5% | 50.0% | 4.06 | 4.18 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 88 | 13 | — | 14.8% | 3.3% | — | 4.02 | 4.28 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 118 | 31 | 9 | 26.3% | 7.9% | 29.0% | 4.00 | 4.29 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 73 | 36 | 9 | 49.3% | 9.2% | 25.0% | 4.00 | 4.12 |
| UC Davis → | 79 | 38 | 6 | 48.1% | 9.7% | 15.8% | 4.03 | 4.18 |