These reports were developed in response to requests from educators, policy makers and educational partners across the state and will provide another valuable tool for educators to use in serving their most vulnerable students, said Chief Deputy Superintendent Mary Nicely, who announced the report’s release Oct. 26.

“While most students do not move schools, some students move schools once or twice, and very few students move a lot. State and national foster youth advocacy groups have been requesting for years that California publish this data, since it is a great conversation starter on the rights of our vulnerable students on still attending the same school even if they are forced to relocate,” Nicely said.

Stability and mobility are not the inverse of each other but knowing what proportion of the students that do not move is informative, particularly when comparing trends across counties, districts, schools and different types of schools. This is critical because high mobility impacts districts, schools, staff and, most importantly, students. Statewide, the percent of all students that were stable has been consistent over the last three years — between 91 and 92 percent.

The statewide stability rate for 2019–20 varied across student groups with foster and homeless youth having the lowest stability rates of 65.8 and 79.5 percent, respectively. Students with disabilities had the highest stability rate of 91 percent.

In the 2019–20 academic year, grades nine through 12 had the lowest stability rate of 89 percent followed by kindergarten with a rate of 90 percent.

Statewide, African American students had the lowest stability rate of 84.5 percent in 2019–20 and Asian and Filipino students had the highest stability rate of 94.5 percent and 95.7 percent, respectively.

The Stability Rate is defined as the percentage of all public school students enrolled during the academic year (July 1 to June 30) who completed a “full year” of learning in one school. Some states count students as being stable if they are enrolled in the same school during their official Fall and Spring Census enrollment counts. Other states determine which students are enrolled on the first and last days of school.

In California, 245 calendar days was determined to be the length of a stable enrollment because it includes the requisite 180 instructional days for the academic year and allows for variances in school calendar, vacations, and weekends to capture approximately 90 percent of the approximate 270 calendar days associated with a “full year” of learning. Stability rate does not measure interruptions such as attendance or suspensions.

The measure was developed after an extensive review of various stability metrics calculated by other state educational agencies, an evaluation of the data the CDE collects, and in collaboration with internal and external educational partners.

Access Stability Rate reports on CDE’s DataQuest site at dq.cde.ca.gov.