Santa Barbara Junior High is a 7-8 school.

It serves grades 7-8 (California Department of Education school directory), so it has no graduating class and there is nothing to measure for UC admissions. Its enrollment, student body and state test results are below.

Santa Barbara Junior High

Santa Barbara · Santa Barbara County · Santa Barbara Unified · Public

Public Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara Unified → CDS 4276786…
Shareable scorecard →

At a glance

Programs & features
  • Gifted & talented program
Academic signals
  • AP rigor: Bottom 14% of US high schools

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

How Santa Barbara Junior High compares for families

What families should know about Santa Barbara Junior High.

  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: La Cumbre Junior High, Peabody Charter, La Colina Junior High and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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For Parents

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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21
SAT/ACT test-takers
0
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test

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.

College readiness

Getting ready for college

These come from the state and federal files, not from UC — so they are here whether or not Santa Barbara Junior High has a UC admissions record.

Student-Counselor Ratio
Counseling here is unusually well-staffed — about 270 students per counselor, near what experts recommend.
270:1
2.0 FTE counselors · 540 students
In context: CA median 337:1 · 67 fewer students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.

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: total enrollment.

28% of students miss 10%+ of school days — above the state's ~21%. Ask what the school is doing about engagement.
Chronic absent
28.1%
149 of 531 students

Absenteeism is up 21.4 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Santa Barbara County median
18.9% · school is worse than 87% of 31 HS
Statewide median
20.9%
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
800 (2018)540 (2026)
-32.5%

If this trend holds (-6.7%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~504 -36 $0
3 yr (2029) ~438 -102 $0
5 yr (2031) ~381 -159 $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 Santa Barbara Junior High really compare on getting kids to college?

Unlock a head-to-head snapshot of Santa Barbara Junior High against its 10 most similar nearby schools — matched on size, location, type. See exactly where it stands on the college pipeline.

The full head-to-head table — every peer school's UC Reach, side by side.
Enrollment trend + 3-year projection — is this school growing or quietly shrinking?
The plain-English read on what it all means for your family.

Your similar-school group includes

La Cumbre Junior High · Peabody Charter · La Colina Junior High · Adelante Charter · Goleta Valley Junior High · Santa Barbara Community Academy · +4 more

Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement. We'll email you the snapshot and a few alerts a year. Unsubscribe anytime.

Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25

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

93% of students who start the year here finish it here.
Stability rate
92.6%
497 of 537 students

40 of 537 students who enrolled at Santa Barbara Junior High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (7.4% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Santa Barbara County median
91.5% · school is in the 61st percentile of 31 HS
Statewide median
88.7% · in the 73rd percentile of 2,689 HS

Stability by student group

Hispanic / Latino (442) 93.9%
Socio. disadvantaged (435) 92.2%
Students w/ disabilities (106) 91.5%
English learners (86) 84.9%
White (73) 83.6%

Nearest peer high schools

La Cumbre Junior High 94.4% Peabody Charter 96.2% La Colina Junior High 96.7% Adelante Charter 96.2% Goleta Valley Junior High 96.0%

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.

District financial profile — Santa Barbara 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.

Total revenue
$237.1M
+7.1% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$17,979
13,188 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 18.6%
Local: 72.5%
Federal: 8.9%
Instruction share
54.4%
of current spending · $8,136/pupil
Long-term debt
$322.8M
+26.5% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($M)
Total expenditure by year ($M)

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 Santa Barbara 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).

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for Santa Barbara Junior High

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 -6.7%/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 →

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All stories from the data →

For Parents

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