Natomas Charter School
Sacramento · Sacramento County · Natomas Unified · Public
Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Inderkum High School → Westlake Charter → Grant Union High School → Rio Linda Senior High School → Rio Linda High → Compare all similar →A parent's read
- The UC pipeline here is real. 37 admissions to the top six UC campuses for a class of 127 seniors puts this school in roughly the top 30% of California high schools.
- 8 in 10 graduates leave eligible for UC and CSU. 83% finish the A-G courses California's universities require before a student can even apply — most California schools manage about 6 in 10.
- Kids actually show up. Only 4% of students are chronically absent, versus about 23% statewide — day-to-day engagement most schools would envy.
- Most grads aim beyond the UC system. Seniors file only ~1.1 UC applications each — families here mostly target CSU, private, or out-of-state colleges, so judge this school on more than its UC numbers.
- One question for any counselor: who should still test? Plenty of strong students skip the SAT/ACT now — but merit scholarships at dozens of colleges still key off scores. Ask how the school decides who should still sit for one.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Where grads go — and what it costs & pays
UC admits by campus · Class of 2025
Getting in is step one. The cost above is the average aid-receiving family's net price — yours depends on whether you qualify for aid — and your child's odds depend on their GPA + scores. See your family's real numbers at these campuses:
Get my child's odds + our real costs →Sources: UC Office of the President (admits); IPEDS net price + College Scorecard 10-yr earnings (cost & payoff). Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.
California College-Going Rate
86.6% of the 2022-23 graduating class enrolled in college within a year.
The share of 2022-23 graduates who enrolled at a college anywhere in the U.S. within 12 months, per the National Student Clearinghouse match the California Department of Education publishes.
Give the same class four more months and 88.2% had enrolled — CDE publishes a 16-month window alongside the 12-month one, 105 students.
Down 2.5 points from the 2021-22 class (89.1%).
Where the 2022-23 class enrolled
In California — 94 students (79.0%)
Out of state — 9 students (7.6%)
CDE puts each graduate in one bucket only — whichever kind of college they were enrolled in longest — so these add up to the rate above. That is a different count from the UC Reach Score on this page, which counts a student at every UC campus that admitted them.
Source: California Department of Education, College-Going Rate (DataQuest) ↗, cohort 2022-23, posted 17-Sep-2025. Data file: cgr12mo23.txt ↗ (and the 16-month file ↗). CDE builds the rate by matching California high school completers to National Student Clearinghouse enrollment records; we publish CDE’s aggregates and hold no student-level data.
How Natomas Charter School compares for families
Above-average college outcomes statewide.
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 29 — 10 points above the California median of 19. Ahead of 70% of California high schools.
- ▸ Locally🎯 Top 5% in California on Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) — plus 3 more top-ranks.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (UC Reach Score 29 vs a 20 median) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025
Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.
Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.
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
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.
Low and stable absenteeism — students are engaged and showing up. The leading indicator is healthy.
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
If this trend holds (+0.3%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,905 | +6 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,918 | +19 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,930 | +31 | $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.
How does Natomas Charter School really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #3 of 10 most similar nearby schools on UC Reach. Unlock the full snapshot to see the head-to-head — who's ahead, by how much, and where it's heading.
Your similar-school group includes
Inderkum High School · Westlake Charter · Grant Union High · Rio Linda Senior High School · Rio Linda High · River City High School · +4 more
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Sacramento County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Natomas Charter outperformed Sacramento County on enrollment (school +16.7% vs. county +3.3%) AND maintains 92.8% stability. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
42 of 586 students who enrolled at Natomas Charter School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (7.2% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.
Stability by student group
Nearest peer high schools
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.
District financial profile — Natomas Unified (FY2020)
From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.
Local: 29.9%
Federal: 12.0%
Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the Natomas Unified as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).
Natomas Charter School sent 141 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 26.2% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 29 (top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, counting a student at each campus that admitted them) — 10 points above the California median of 19, higher than 70% of California high schools. The school produces 3.1 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
19
53
29
Higher than 70% of California high schools (1107 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Natomas Charter School's UC Reach Score of 29 is above the California median (19). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53 or higher.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 95 — a gap of 66 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Natomas Charter School's UC Reach is higher than 70% of California high schools (1107 ranked).
UC Outcomes Trend — 2024–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data: applicant and admit totals count a student once at EACH campus. A senior admitted to UCLA and UC San Diego adds 2 to the admit total, so the total can exceed the senior class — that is the metric working as defined, not an error. The admit RATE is unaffected: both its numerator and denominator are campus-level.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach Score | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 23 | 4 | 4 | 17.4% | 3 | 100.0% | — | —† |
| UCLA → Elite | 24 | —† | —† | —† | —† | — | — | —† |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 22 | 14 | 4 | 63.6% | 11 | 28.6% | — | —† |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 19 | 6 | —† | 31.6% | 5 | — | — | —† |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 17 | —† | —† | —† | —† | — | — | —† |
| UC Davis → | 36 | 13 | 6 | 36.1% | 10 | 46.2% | — | —† |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for Natomas Charter 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 UC Reach Score (29) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently 0.3%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals
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