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Version 2.0

California, state file 05

Released September 28, 2026, in the SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025) cycle. Figures are as of the release.

This version

File number
05
Version
2.0
Cycle
SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025)
Released
September 28, 2026
Next scheduled re-audit
Not yet scheduled

Cite this version

National Deaf Education Data Index, California state file version 2.0, SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025), released September 28, 2026, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23253500, https://www.ndedi.org/states/ca/v2.0/

Other citation styles
National Deaf Education Data Index, California state file version 2.0, SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025), released September 28, 2026, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23253500, https://www.ndedi.org/states/ca/v2.0/

In plain language

California runs one state school for Deaf students on two campuses, in Fremont and in Riverside, and the state Department of Education operates both. The two campuses enrolled 629 students in the 2024-25 school year, while the state counted 10,439 students as Deaf or Hard of Hearing, so most are taught somewhere else. That somewhere else is local: school districts, county offices of education, some charter schools, and regional special education bodies called SELPAs. This file read the website of every one of those 1,885 local bodies.

Of them, 181 publish a program or a staff position for Deaf and hard of hearing students, 523 only mention hearing in passing, and 1,143 publish nothing on the subject. What a website says is not what a student receives: a body that publishes nothing may still serve its Deaf students. Published programs sit mostly with regional bodies: 42 of 58 county offices publish one, against 60 of 935 districts. A small district's own website most often says nothing (362 of 514 elementary districts), and in thirteen counties no local body publishes a program at all. California does publish how many Deaf and Hard of Hearing students each local agency has and their kind of classroom, though it hides small numbers, and it posts the yearly report on young Deaf children's language development that state law has required since 2017.

No state document tells a family how to choose between the state school, a regional program and a local one. The state funds the state schools through two budget lines, 78.1 million and 50.0 million dollars in 2024-25, which also cover the School for the Blind and three assessment centers. Thirty-seven local bodies could not be read after two tries and await review by a person.

A summary of this version for any reader, written with the file. The figures and sources behind each sentence are in the sections below.

Coverage summary

  • NONE FOUND is a statement about publication, not about service delivery.
  • Obligations under IDEA are not evidence of a program.
  • 1,885Units in frameExhaustive frame
  • 1,848Readable subsetThe frame less NOT VERIFIABLE and NOT AUDITED: every unit whose pages were read
  • 79PROGRAM rows with a weak-evidence flag
Tallies by code, against the frame of 1885 and the readable subset of 1848
CodeUnitsPercent of framePercent of readable subset
PROGRAM1819.6%9.8%
MENTION52327.7%28.3%
NONE FOUND1,14360.6%61.9%
NOT VERIFIABLE372.0%Outside the readable subset
NOT AUDITED00.0%Outside the readable subset
OUT OF FRAME00.0%0.0%
NOT OPERATING10.1%0.1%
Coverage codes against the frameEach bar counts the units carrying that code. The codes record what agencies publish, not what they do.
Data sheet
Coverage codes against the frame
CategoryCountShare of 1885
PROGRAM18110%
MENTION52328%
NONE FOUND114361%
NOT VERIFIABLE372%
NOT OPERATING1<1%

Shares are of the frame count, 1885 units.As of September 28, 2026.

Tallies by agency typeFor each agency type, the units under each code, in the order the file first records the types.
  • PROGRAM
  • MENTION
  • NONE FOUND
  • NOT VERIFIABLE
  • NOT OPERATING
Data sheet
Tallies by agency type
CategoryPROGRAMMENTIONNONE FOUNDNOT VERIFIABLENOT OPERATINGTotal
Charter school, own LEA for special education2197536140749
County office of education42970058
Elementary school district11120362210514
High school district522490076
SELPA75352411136
State Board of Education authorized charter031004
State special school210003
Unified school district4413616410345

As of September 28, 2026.

As of September 28, 2026, the release date of this version.

The two formulations

  • NONE FOUND is a statement about publication, not about service delivery.
  • Obligations under IDEA are not evidence of a program.

Full access and custom data

The full state file

A license opens the full California state file: the report and its evidence supplement, as PDF and Word, and the workbook with every sheet, with each year's update.

A licence is for one state, with a reduced-rate licence for Deaf-led and disability organizations; State Partner and national licences cover more.

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Custom data

We also prepare data for one organization under its own licence: one of California's standard regions, the counties, districts or service area you name, or another cut of the file. A custom cut is made from a released version of the state file and cites it and its DOI; it is not published.

The 7 standard regions of California, each a group of whole counties:

  • Greater Los Angeles 3 counties

    Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura

  • Inland Empire 2 counties

    Riverside, San Bernardino

  • San Diego-Imperial 2 counties

    San Diego, Imperial

  • San Francisco Bay Area 9 counties

    Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma

  • Greater Sacramento (Capital Region) 6 counties

    El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, Yuba

  • Central California 20 counties

    Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, Tulare, Tuolumne

  • Northern California (North State) 16 counties

    Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity

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