Cold Stream Alternative School

Truckee · Placer County · Public

Public Placer County CDS 3166944…
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📋 At a glance

Programs & features
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 6% of US high schools

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How Cold Stream Alternative School compares for families

What families should know about Cold Stream Alternative School.

  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Sierra High (continuation), Divide High, Beckwourth (jim) High (continuation) and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21
SAT/ACT test-takers
0
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
0.0
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

45.5%
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.

Student composition — 2025-26

HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.

Race / ethnicity

Hispanic / Latino 60% -6.7
White 40% +6.7

Program subgroups

Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.

Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25

Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.

Chronic absent
68.8%
11 of 16 students

Absenteeism is up 68.8 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Placer County median
15.1% · school is worse than 86% of 22 HS
Statewide median
22.9%
Chronic absenteeism by year (raw %)

Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
12 (2024)10 (2026)
-16.7%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
4 (2024)4 (2026)
+0.0%

If this trend holds (-8.7%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~9 -1 $0
3 yr (2029) ~8 -2 $0
5 yr (2031) ~6 -4 $0

Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.

Cold Stream Alternative School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · Truckee · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is up 0% (4→4 from 2024 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -23%.
  • At its recent rate (-8.7%/yr), enrollment projects to ~8 by 2029 — about 2 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

10 students (2026)
~8 projected (2029)
at -8.7%/yr

That's about 2 fewer students. At per-student funding of $ per student, that's roughly $0 in annual state funding at risk.

Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423 per ADA) — adjust to your district's actual per-pupil figure. Projection extrapolates the recent annual rate — not a forecast of intent.

Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools

School Type Size UC Reach Enroll. trend
Cold Stream Alternative School Public 10 +0%
Peer-group median -23%
Sierra High (continuation) Public 32 -23%
Divide High Public 9 -38%
Beckwourth (jim) High (continuation) Public 8 -77%
Wheatland Community Day High Public 7 +0%
Sierra Pass (continuation) Public 3 -67%
Greenville High School Public 17 -67%
Alpine County Opportunity Public 5
Downieville Junior-Senior High Public 22 +0%
John Adams Academy Public 26 +0%
Folsom Lake High Public 36 -3%

UC Reach = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class (can exceed 100% when students are admitted to multiple campuses). Enrollment trend = first-to-latest grade-12 change on file. Similar schools matched on proximity, size, type. Methodology →

Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25

Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Placer County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Action needed
Mid-year exits eroding share alongside county-wide pressure.

Tracking Placer County on enrollment (+0.0% vs. -0.7%), but stability (44.4%) is below the county median. Retention is the levered fix. Chronic absenteeism is also at 70.6% (up +70.6 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

+0.0%  school enrollment (2024–2026)
-0.7%  Placer County baseline
+0.7pp  gap vs. county
44.4%  retention (county median 90.8%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2024
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
44.4%
8 of 18 students

10 of 18 students who enrolled at Cold Stream Alternative School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (55.6% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Placer County median
90.8% · school is in the 4th percentile of 23 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 14th percentile of 1,688 HS

Nearest peer high schools

Sierra High (continuation) 48.8% Divide High 46.7% Beckwourth (jim) High (continuation) 26.9% Wheatland Community Day High 4.3% Sierra Pass (continuation) 20.0%

Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.

University of California outcomes · Class of 2024
UC Reach
N/A
(class size est.)
UC Application Reach
N/A
None applications
UC Admit Rate
N/A
None / None applications
UC Yield Rate
N/A
None enrolled of None admitted
Yield vs. Enrollment Reach: Yield answers "of UC admits, what % chose UC?" — denominator is just the admits. A small admitted cohort can post a low yield even when the school sends a healthy share of its class to UC.
UC Enrollment Reach
N/A
None enrollees / None seniors
Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what % ended up at UC?" — denominator is everyone. High Yield with low Enrollment Reach is common at elite privates: most admits matriculate, but the school sends most of its class to non-UC selective colleges.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
N/A
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
N/A
Run CDE download to enable Reach %
Total School Enrollment
12
All grades · CDE Census Day

Campus Breakdown — 2024

Campus Applicants Admits Enrollees Admit Rate UC Reach Yield Avg GPA (App) Avg GPA (Adm)
UC Santa Barbara → Selective
UC Irvine → Selective
= UCOP-suppressed (count below 3 students, hidden for privacy — actual value is 0, 1, or 2, not necessarily zero). Campus-level totals may count one student admitted to multiple UC campuses more than once; Admit Volume metrics are not the same as UC Reach, which requires unique-student counts. See methodology →

What This Means

Note: admit counts used here are campus-level totals. A student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted twice. When UCOP unique-student data becomes available it will be loaded automatically and the labels will update.
Senior class size is estimated from CDE grade 12 enrollment data. Reach percentages should be interpreted as approximate.
Compare with other schools → See Placer County rankings →

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for Cold Stream Alternative School

A board- and LCAP-ready intelligence brief: your enrollment retention and college outcomes, benchmarked against your closest competitors, with a 5-year forecast, concrete steps to act on, and the rigor + outcomes story you can share with your families. Built from primary public data — prepared for you, not auto-generated.

  • Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently -8.7%/yr) with the revenue at stake
  • Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals
See a sample report →

For Parents

Researching colleges for your kid at Cold Stream Alternative School?

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For School Admins looking at enrollment trends: request an Enrollment Trend Audit →