About Sonoma County Schools

Sonoma County is divided into 40 school districts for kindergarten through twelfth-grade (K-12) educational services. There are 31 elementary, 3 high school, and 6 unified districts. Unified districts operate both elementary and secondary schools for the students residing within their boundaries.

The smallest district in the county, Kashia, is located in a rural area and enrolls 11 students. The largest district, Santa Rosa City High, enrolls 11,964 students in the county’s most populous city. Fifteen districts enroll less than 500 students; only four serve more than 5,000 students.

Although many districts are small in size, nearly 71,000 students attend the 179 public schools that are located in Sonoma County. There are 89 elementary, 17 middle/junior high, and 15 comprehensive high schools, as well as 31 alternative schools and 27 charter schools. Sixty-five of these schools have been named California Distinguished Schools and eight have been recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools.

Enrollment in Sonoma County schools has been slowly decreasing since 2001, with some districts more impacted than others. This enrollment trend is not unique to Sonoma County; nearly half of all school districts in California are seeing enrollment declines.

Another enrollment trend in Sonoma County is the growing diversity of students in public schools. Today, about one-third of students are Hispanic and 23 percent are in the process of learning English. Approximately 12 percent of students receive special education services.

On all academic indicators – the state STAR tests, high school exit exam, Academic Performance Index (API), Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) – Sonoma County consistently scores above the state average and has shown positive growth over the years. Fifty-four percent of schools are “above average” in statewide rankings. Nineteen percent are rated “average” and 27 percent are “below average.”