LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — New data from the state shows that a statewide public school enrollment decline has begun to slow while enrollment in Lake County’s schools continues to rise.

On Wednesday, the California Department of Education, or CDE, released 2024-25 school enrollment data on DataQuest.

In the 2024-25 school year, overall student enrollment declined by 0.54% compared to the year prior, representing a slowing of declining school enrollment, the data showed.

Though the change from the prior school year is minimal, the difference between current year enrollment and pre-pandemic enrollment remains significant, the state reported.

“The overall slowing enrollment decline is encouraging and reflects the hard work of our local educational agencies across the state,” said State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond. “While we have more work to do, the dramatic growth in transitional kindergarten is inspiring and shows that providing rigorous and quality programs can be a key ingredient to bringing more families back to our schools. One of our initiatives in this area is expansion of dual language immersion programs as a strategy to drive future enrollment growth by providing school programs that are in high demand from California’s families.”

Regarding the overall enrollment picture, the news was different in Lake County, where enrollment was up 0.17%, the second year in a row that it showed an increase.

In fact, over the past 10 years, Lake County has shown enrollment rising annually with the exception of two years — 2020-21 and 2022-23.

Since the 2015-16 school year, Lake County’s overall enrollment has grown by 11%, while the total state enrollment has dropped by 6.88%.

While the overall decrease in school enrollment compared to prepandemic levels continues to be a source of strain on public schools, CDE said new initiatives such as transitional kindergarten, or TK, show significant growth and signs of promise as local educational agencies work to reengage families, especially as California’s families experience increased economic hardship.

CDE said the most significant trend in California’s 2024-25 school enrollment data reflects an increased demand for specific education initiatives, such as TK.

Both on the county and state levels, TK enrollment has grown steadily, although it rolled back in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even as overall enrollment has fallen, CDE said TK enrollment continues to boom, with a year-over-year increase of 17.2%. In 2024-25, Lake County’s TK enrollment rose by 6.5%.

The state and Lake County both reported having their highest TK enrollments by far in 2024-25.

The number of local educational agencies offering TK at all school sites has increased to 85%, and as TK expansion creates more spaces in state preschool, enrollment of 3-year-olds in state preschool continues to rise. Overall, more and more families are taking advantage of public opportunities for early learning, CDE reported.

In addition, CDE said dual language immersion programs have shown significant growth statewide: as of 2023–24, there were 1,036 dual language immersion programs in California, a 39% increase from 747 such programs in 2018–19.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, and on Bluesky, @erlarson.bsky.social. Find Lake County News on the following platforms: Facebook, @LakeCoNews; X, @LakeCoNews; Threads, @lakeconews, and on Bluesky, @lakeconews.bsky.social.