Oakland Unified cuts newcomer programs as student enrollment falls sharply

For students newly arriving in California schools, the availability of specialized support is shrinking. Districts that once relied on high volumes of new immigrants to fill classrooms and justify dedicated staffing are now reducing services. In Oakland Unified School District, the number of first-year immigrant students, known as newcomers, has fallen to a fraction of its previous levels, prompting the closure of most dedicated programs.

The change directly impacts how these students are integrated into the academic system. With fewer peers in specialized tracks, many are now being placed into mainstream classes earlier than before. Teachers are absorbing these students without additional training in some cases, creating pressure on educators who may lack the tools to support learners still mastering English or catching up on missed curriculum.

In Oakland, the shift is stark. From the 2017-18 school year through 2024-25, the district averaged more than 1,300 new immigrant students annually, aside from the pandemic year of 2020-21. For the 2025-26 school year, that figure dropped to 498. By October 7 of this year, only 212 new students had enrolled for the first time. Most of these students are in elementary school.

Nicole Knight, executive director of English language learner and multilingual achievement at Oakland Unified, stated, “We knew the numbers were going to be low. This is extremely low.” The district responded by consolidating services. Last year, newcomer programs operated at 17 middle and high schools. This year, they are available at only six schools, primarily serving students in their second or third year of attendance.

The reduction in enrollment also affects financial stability. School funding is tied to student counts, so fewer newcomers mean less state revenue. Knight noted that the influx of new students previously helped keep bilingual immersion classes fully enrolled. “We’re suffering from declining enrollment, and it does make visible how much newcomers were helping us stay afloat,” she said.

Los Angeles Unified School District has experienced a similar decline. Newcomer enrollment dropped from 20,755 students in 2024-25 to 11,103 students in 2026-27. This represents a 46.5% decrease over that period. The district’s total enrollment fell by 8.3% between fall 2025 and fall 2027. The drop in new students follows a decrease in border crossings that began in early 2025 amid changes in federal immigration policy.

Not all districts are seeing the same magnitude of loss. San Juan Unified, located near Sacramento, reported a 13.6% decrease in newcomer students, from 974 in 2025-26 to 842 in the current school year. Raj Rai, a district spokesperson, attributed the smaller drop to the fact that many families arrived as refugees or through the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghan nationals, rather than crossing the border. She added, “We continue to see some newcomer families relocate to our district from other states to join relatives and established communities.”

San Juan Unified has maintained its academic, language, and social-emotional support services. The district recently launched an English Club that meets on Saturdays to assist newcomers. Students in the district speak at least 70 languages, including Spanish, Persian, Russian, Pashto, Ukrainian, Arabic, Armenian, Romanian, Vietnamese, and Punjabi.

Statewide, the total number of newcomer students fell from a record high of 236,958 in 2024-25 to 228,780 in 2025-26. Sam Finn, executive director of the California Newcomer Network, warned that the population is expected to decline further. “We’re about to reach a cliff where we’ll have had a couple years without significant entries,” Finn said. Many current students entered before recent policy changes and will soon age out of the newcomer classification.

Program leaders are working to preserve curriculum and expertise in case enrollment rebounds. Knight emphasized the value of the infrastructure already built. “It was a huge effort to build out all of these programs and expertise and curriculum, and a real labor of love, and we don’t want all of that to go away, and then we don’t have access to that when we need it again,” she said.