No UC admissions data on file for Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter.

This school doesn't appear in UCOP's source-school records (it may send few or no applicants to UC). Its enrollment trend and similar-school comparison are still below.

Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter

Freedom · Santa Cruz County · Santa Cruz County Office of Education · Public

Public Santa Cruz County Santa Cruz County Office of Education → CDS 4410447…

Shareable scorecard →

Data Year

Compare with peers

Most similar nearby schools

Anzar High School → Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy → Ceiba College Preparatory Academy → El Puente High School → Diamond Technology Institute → Compare all similar →

#1 Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) in Santa Cruz Top 5% Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) in CA

At a glance

Academic signals

AP rigor: Bottom 18% of US high schools
4-yr grad rate: 12% in 2019 (Bottom 2% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

How Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter compares for families

What families should know about Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter.

▸ Locally🎯 #1 in Santa Cruz County on Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) — plus 1 more top-rank.
▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Anzar High School, Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, Ceiba College Preparatory Academy and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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California College-Going Rate

13.9% 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.

Within 12 months

13.9%

of 72 graduates

Give the same class four more months and 15.3% had enrolled — CDE publishes a 16-month window alongside the 12-month one, 11 students.

Up 1.8 points from the 2021-22 class (12.1%).

Where the 2022-23 class enrolled

In California — 8 students (11.1%)

University of California 0.0% 0

California State University 0.0% 0

California Community College 11.1% 8

California private college 0.0% 0

Out of state — 2 students (2.8%)

Out-of-state 4-year 2.8% 2

Out-of-state 2-year 0.0% 0

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.

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

SAT/ACT test-takers

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.

4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

Bottom 2% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

4-year graduation rate

12%

Range: 10–14%

4-year cohort size

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.

Federal Title I context

Lower-need school

Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)

12.1%

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)

<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.

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.

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 Cruz County Career Advancement Charter has a UC admissions record.

A-G Completion ⓘ

Fewer than 1 in 10 graduates finish the courses UC and CSU require — below the state norm. Worth asking how course access and planning work here.

2024-25 cohort

In context: CA median 55.9% · -55.9 pp vs. median · Santa Cruz Co. 58.9%.

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 79% -2.7

White 17% +1.2

Black / African Am. 2%

Two or more 1%

Program subgroups

Socioeconomically disadv. 20% -8.5

English learners 8% -1.7

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.

Kids show up: 0% are chronically absent versus about 23% statewide — engagement most schools would envy.

Chronic absent

0.0%

0 of 368 students

Low and stable absenteeism — students are engaged and showing up. The leading indicator is healthy.

Santa Cruz County median

18.8% · school is better than 100% of 14 HS

Statewide median

22.8%

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)

48 (2018) → 235 (2026)

+389.6%

Grade 12 (graduating class)

48 (2018) → 235 (2026)

+389.6%

How does Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter really compare on getting kids to college?

Unlock a head-to-head snapshot of Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter 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

Anzar High School · Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy · Ceiba College Preparatory Academy · El Puente High School · Diamond Technology Institute · Mt. Madonna High · +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 Santa Cruz County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

20% of students who start the year finish it here — more churn than most CA schools. Ask what's behind the turnover.

Mixed signal

Demand outpacing county is masking internal churn.

Enrollment growth is beating Santa Cruz County (+389.6% vs. +3.1%), but 336 of 420 students didn't maintain continuous enrollment. Why are families leaving once enrolled?

+389.6% senior class, grade 12 (2018–2026)

+3.1% Santa Cruz County baseline

+386.5pp gap vs. county

20.0% retention (county median 90.8%)

Senior class (grade 12) — indexed to 100 at 2018

Stability rate by year (raw %)

Stability rate

20.0%

84 of 420 students

336 of 420 students who enrolled at Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (80.0% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Santa Cruz County median

90.8% · school is in the 7th percentile of 15 HS

Statewide median

87.3% · in the 2nd percentile of 1,734 HS

Stability by student group

Hispanic / Latino (337) 20.5%

Socio. disadvantaged (85) 16.5%

White (74) 18.9%

English learners (38) 18.4%

Students w/ disabilities (23) 0.0%

Nearest peer high schools

Anzar High School 94.2% Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy 97.7% Ceiba College Preparatory Academy 92.5% El Puente High School 54.5% Diamond Technology Institute 93.2%

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 Cruz County Office of Education (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

$64.5M

+4.3% since FY2017

Per-pupil revenue

$61,265

1,053 students enrolled

Revenue mix

State: 46.8%
Local: 35.2%
Federal: 18.1%

Instruction share

35.3%

of current spending · $16,367/pupil

Long-term debt

$7.8M

-12.1% 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 Cruz County Office of Education 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 Cruz County Career Advancement Charter

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.

✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals

See a sample report →