Sunset High School
Encinitas · San Diego County · Hacienda la Puente Unified · Public
📄 Shareable scorecard →📋 At a glance
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 6% of US high schools
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Sunset High School compares for families
What families should know about Sunset High School.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Grandview, College Preparatory Academy, Mill School And Technology Academy, Lou Henry Hoover School Of Fine Arts and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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Get an email when Sunset High School's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: 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.
Chronic absenteeism — 2023-24
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.
Absenteeism is down 35.1 pp since 2016-17. Engagement improving — a positive trajectory worth understanding and reinforcing.
Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2023-24. 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 (+36.8%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~447 | +120 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~837 | +510 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,566 | +1239 | $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.
Sunset High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Encinitas · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+39.3%/yr); projects to ~885 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach Score | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunset High School | Public | 327 | — | — |
| Peer-group median | — | -22% | ||
| Grandview, College Preparatory Academy | Public | 347 | — | — |
| Mill School And Technology Academy | Public | 335 | — | — |
| Lou Henry Hoover School Of Fine Arts | Public | 337 | — | — |
| Lydia Jackson College Preparatory Academy | Public | 341 | — | — |
| Mt. Sac Early College Academy At West Covina | Public | 265 | — | -21% |
| Edgewood Academy | Public | 482 | — | — |
| Baldwin Academy | Public | 481 | — | — |
| Fernando R. Ledesma Continuation High | Public | 231 | — | -24% |
| Beardslee Dual Language Immersion Academy (pk-8) | Public | 440 | — | — |
| Los Robles Academy | Public | 199 | — | — |
UC Reach Score = 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 — 2023-24
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the San Diego County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
3 of 30 students who enrolled at Sunset High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (10.0% 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 2023-24. 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 — Hacienda la Puente 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: 16.8%
Federal: 14.8%
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 Hacienda la Puente 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).
Campus Breakdown — 2024
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach Score | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| UCLA → Elite | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| UC San Diego → Selective | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for Sunset High 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 36.8%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals