Public school enrollment in California continued to fall this year, with 2025–26 marking the ninth straight year of decline. Declines have spanned most of the state and are projected to continue through the next decade. They are primarily driven by a shrinking school age population, rather than students not enrolling in public education or not showing up to school. We find that these declines are entirely due to a notable drop in the number of multilingual students (those who primarily speak another language at home).
Since 2015–16, total enrollment in California public schools has fallen by approximately 500,000 students. Enrollment among English-only students has risen slightly, up 14,000 over the last decade, but enrollment by multilingual students has fallen by 514,000. This divergence predates the pandemic and has only grown since then.
Enrollment fell faster for multilingual students during the pandemic and has continued to fall, while enrollment for English-only students has recovered slightly and grown in each of the last four years. Today, English-only students represent 62% of TK–12 students (3.6 million) while multilingual students are 37% (2.1 million, but multilingual status is TBD for approximately 65,000 students).
Enrollment trends also vary by region. Declines have been largest in the greater Los Angeles region—17% over the last decade—with more than a 31% drop in multilingual student enrollment compared to only a 3% drop in English-only enrollment. Conversely, in the Bay Area declines were similar for both student groups.
In nearly all regions, enrollment declines have been greater (or gains smaller) for multilingual than English-only students. Only the Sacramento region saw growth in both student groups over the past decade.
Several factors may contribute to these diverging trends. Birth rates have fallen significantly for every racial/ethnic group in the past 20 years, but have fallen the most for foreign-born, Latina women. Over 80% of English Learners speak Spanish as their primary language.
Slowing immigration may also be a factor, but it doesn’t fit neatly into the overall story of declining enrollment. Net international immigration fell over the past decade and slowed significantly in 2025. But in 2023 the number of California’s recent immigrant students began to rise, surpassing pre-pandemic levels in 2023–24 and 2024–25 (no data are available yet for this past school year).
Similarly, data from recent assessments used to determine if students need English language support reveals a modest increase in new multilingual students entering after kindergarten compared to the pre-pandemic years. But their numbers fell in 2023–24 and 2024–25 (again, no data are available yet for this past school year).
Federal changes in immigration policy may also play a role, but the extent is not yet clear from the data. Research has linked immigration enforcement changes to student absenteeism, but evidence on longer-term enrollment patterns is limited.
These changes have important implications for EL student services. Falling enrollment at schools with fewer English Learners may make it more challenging to provide language services at scale. At the same time, state biliteracy goals mean districts are still seeking to expand bilingual education programs, to help both multilingual and English-only students gain second-language fluency. This expansion may be particularly challenging in some of the more rural regions of the state where multilingual student populations are growing and staffing bilingual programs is already difficult.
Regional differences also suggest there is no single statewide response to enrollment declines; as enrollment changes continue to shape demographics across California schools, education leaders and policymakers will need to pay careful attention to where student needs are changing.
