Student school enrollment has been steadily dropping for years in California.

But not in Manteca Unified.

Manteca Unified ended the 2020-2021 school year with 21,901 students.

It reached 25,571 last school year.

And during the 2026-2027 school year starting in August, the district projects to increase to 25,871 students.

If that occurs, the district will have grown by roughly 15 percent in six years.

That contrasts sharpy with other school districts that have either steadily declined during the same period or remained stagnant when it comes to enrollment.

The district — if the projection holds — will have added 300 students last school year and 300 students next school year.

That compares to an average of 915 students annually during the previous four years.

The growth in Manteca and the non-River Islands portion of Lathrop that is served by MUSD is why the district is trying to move forward with building two new elementary schools south of the 120 Bypass and the Ethel Allen School in Lathrop.

Across the Bay Area — and much of California — kindergarten enrollment is smaller, high school graduating classes shrinking and even entire school campuses are being closed down.

State data shows California’s kindergarten through 12th grade public schools enrolled nearly 75,000 fewer students in 2025-2026 than the year before.

Data also shows California has 420,000 fewer public school students now than it did in 2016.

There are roughly 5.7 million K-12 students in California.

San Joaquin County — led by Manteca Unified — had the largest increase of student enrollment among California 58 counties since last school year.

Manteca accounted for 300 of San Joaquin County’s 842 of increased student enrollment.

Placer County was second at 841.

After that, it was Sutter County at 802, Butte County at 200, San Benito County at 146, Glenn County at 82, and Yuba County at 58.

For an inkling of the combined classroom space Manteca’s growth represents filling 10 classrooms.

Manteca Unified did not make the Top 5 in terms of numeric growth.

That was Elk Grove Unified that added 1,097 students for a 1.7 percent gain.

Rounding out the top five were Vacaville Unified with 557 additional students (4.9 percent increase), Folsom-Cordova Unified with 537 more students (2.5 percent increase), Clovis Unified with a jump of 382 students (0.9 percent increase), and Roseville City Elementary with 377 more students (3.1 percent increase).

Takeaways from the state enrollment data follows:

*California K-12 school enrollment declines rapidly due to lower birth rates and a reduction in immigrants.

*Declining enrollment has a significant impact on school budgets and staffing.

*The biggest declines were in private schools, with a 6.6% drop in enrollment, and home schools, with a 3.7% decline.

*Traditional public school enrollment dropped 1.4% and charter public school enrollment fell by 0.3%.

*Nationwide K-12 school enrollment has declined by 2.3% or 1.18 million students over the past five years.

*National projections predict that the country will lose another 2.7 million students by 2031.

*Hispanic students, who make up 56% of California’s student population, had the biggest loss in student enrollment, but not the largest percentage. The number of Hispanic students dropped by 48,064 or 1.48%, while the number of white students dropped by 31,076, or 2.68%.

*The counties with the largest gains in enrollment this year are in Northern California and the Central Valley where it is more affordable for living.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com