Orange County Special Education

Costa Mesa · CA · Orange County Department of Education · Public · K-12 combined


📋 At a glance

Academic signals
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 49% (Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

Composed from EDFacts graduation data, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

This is a special-education school. It serves students with disabilities, who take alternate state assessments rather than the SAT/ACT. College-prep measures like test participation and AP rigor aren't collected here and don't reflect what this school does.
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
49%
Range: 40–59%
4-year cohort size
21
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
16.4%
Typical mix. Watch the trend — high turnover can compound.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
41.0%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

47.1%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
331:1
Above the ASCA 250:1 target but below the US median (~430:1). Capacity is workable.
Counselor FTE
1.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
51
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Grade 12 went from 101 in 2021 to 116 in 2024 — over 3 years.
+14.9%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -2.6%/year, projecting from 2024's 331 students:

2025
322
2027
305
2029
289

≈ 42 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Most similar nearby high schools

The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Magnolia Science Academy Santa Ana
Santa Ana
Public · charter 5.2 188 +11.2%
OCCS:CHEP/PCHS
Tustin
Public 5.5 156 -33.0%
ACCESS Juvenile Hall
Costa Mesa
Public 7.7 169 -5.6%
Richland Continuation High
Orange
Public 8.7 165 -12.7%
Vista Meridian Global Academy
Santa Ana
Public · charter 3.9 260 +50.3%
Marie L. Hare High
Garden Grove
Public 9.6 218 -2.2%
Lorin Griset Academy
Santa Ana
Public 4.3 283 +1.8%
Irvine Adult Transition Programs
Irvine
Public 4.3 117 +36.0%

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