California's high school graduation rate climbed to 87.9% in the 2025–26 school year, its highest mark in a decade, while chronic absenteeism and suspensions both fell statewide. But buried inside those encouraging numbers is a messier story: enrollment collapses at two troubled charter schools, including one now in federal bankruptcy court, which dragged down the state's graduation statistics and distorted outcomes for Asian and white students alike.
A Decade-High Graduation Rate, With an Asterisk
The 87.9% graduation figure comes from the newly released California School Dashboard, according to LAist, which republished the data analysis from EdSource. Chronic absenteeism dropped 1.1 percentage points to 18.3% in 2025–26, down sharply from a pandemic-era peak of 30% in 2021–22, while the suspension rate ticked down to 2.8% from 3.6% just three years earlier. Students are now considered chronically absent if they miss at least 18 instructional days, or 10% or more of the school year.
Those gains were not evenly earned. Highlands Community Charter had a four-year graduation rate of just 6.6%, and the report found the charter lowered the statewide graduation rate for Asian students by 2.8 percentage points and for white students by 4.7 percentage points. California Innovative Career Academy posted an 8.3% graduation rate of its own, with enrollment plunging from 1,729 students in 2024–25 to just 800 the following year. Highlands' own enrollment collapse was far steeper, falling from 11,713 students in 2024–25 to only 487 in 2025–26.
Bankruptcy Filing Follows Audit Findings
The board of Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools authorized a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization earlier that month, and the school planned to seek federal protection, after negotiations with state officials broke down over disputed claims exceeding $240 million, according to CBS News. A 2025 California State Auditor report had found the adult-serving charter improperly collected more than $180 million in K-12 public funds it was not eligible to receive. The charter's financial disputes unfolded during the same period that its enrollment and graduation numbers cratered.
The station's report also traces the charter's attempted escape route: before seeking bankruptcy protection, Highlands tried to open a replacement adult charter school in Sutter County under the name California Learning Academy. The Yuba City Unified School District board rejected that petition in July, citing the charter's history of low academic achievement and financial mismanagement, per details reported by CalMatters.
State Panel Backs Permanent Closures
An advisory panel to the California State Board of Education voted unanimously on June 9 to recommend upholding the charter revocations for both Highlands Community Charter and California Innovative Career Academy, according to ABC10. The full board is scheduled to take up the recommendation at its November meeting, a decision that could permanently shut down both entities. Hoodline previously reported on the Twin Rivers vote against Highlands in January, when the district's board first moved to revoke the charter following state audit findings.
Proficiency Still Lags Behind Attendance Gains
Even as attendance and graduation metrics improved, academic performance tells a more sobering story. Statewide, 49.3% of students scored proficient or advanced in English language arts and 38.4% reached proficiency in math during 2025–26, according to the California Department of Education — modest gains of 0.5 and 1.1 percentage points over the prior year. Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, said more students need to meet standards in English language arts and math, per LAist's report.
Science scores were also added to the dashboard. On the college-readiness side, nearly 55% of graduates met the basic minimum CSU and UC requirements, an increase of 0.9 percentage points, according to LAist's report. A-G coursework is required for public university admission.
San Francisco's Absenteeism Runs Counter to State Trend
While the statewide chronic absenteeism rate fell, San Francisco Unified School District moved in the opposite direction. The district recorded a chronic absenteeism rate of 24% for 2025–26, with students missing an average of 17 instructional days, according to KALW. That local divergence underscores how uneven the statewide recovery remains even as top-line numbers improve. Hoodline has also covered Oakland's mentoring push against absenteeism, part of a broader regional effort to close these gaps among underserved student groups.
New Policies Target Behavior and Early Math Skills
Under Senate Bill 274, which took effect in July 2024, public schools statewide are barred from suspending TK through 12th-grade students for willful defiance or low-level behavioral disruptions through July 2029. The statewide suspension rate was 2.8%.
Meanwhile, California's K-12 public school enrollment continues to shrink, falling to roughly 5.7 million students in 2025–26 — a single-year loss of 74,000 students that extends a decade-long decline, per CalMatters. State officials now face the task of closing two troubled charter networks for good while addressing the stubborn gap between rising attendance and graduation figures and the academic proficiency scores that remain below pre-pandemic levels.
