Humboldt County: 1.5% fewer students were enrolled in 2023-24 school year

There were 15,183 students enrolled in Humboldt County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 1.5% less than the previous year, according to the California Department of Education.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 51.4% identified as male, 48.3% as female, and 0.3% identified themselves as non-binary or did not specify their gender.

Data also showed that white students made up 52.2% of the student body, the largest percentage in the county, followed by Hispanic or Latino students at 22% (3,338 students), multiracial students at 10.2% (1,542 students) and American Indian or Alaska Native students at 9.5% (1,448 students).

Eureka Senior High School had the highest enrollment among Humboldt County’s 535 schools in the 2023-24 academic year, welcoming 1,226 students.

After peaking at 6.3 million in the early 2000s, public school enrollment in California has marked its seventh consecutive decline in the 2023-24 school year, with projections indicating it could fall to approximately 5.2 million by the 2033-34 school year. This trend is attributed to lower birth rates, slowed immigration, and families relocating out of state due to high housing costs. Rural and coastal districts have been particularly affected, facing tough decisions such as school closures and staffing reductions.

Although chronic absenteeism in California decreased in 2023, it remains double the pre-pandemic rate. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, chronic absenteeism in the state public schools reached 25% in 2023, up from 12% in 2019.