Santa Susana High School
Chapter 1 – Student / Community Profile
"Going from Good to Great!"
Since the 1999-2000 school year, attendance has risen from just over 850 students to nearly 1,300 students in 2005-06. For the first time, Santa Susana has found it necessary to put students requesting to attend Santa Susana on a waiting list.
The Santa Susana High School student demographic data has been relatively consistent in growth and in ethnic and gender distribution. The student body remains predominately white (74%) with more females (54%) than males (46%). The ethnic distribution of Santa Susana’s students is similar to that of the district’s two other high schools. The loss of students between years was most prominent in the first two years of the school’s operation. During the 1996-1997 school year, the eighth-grade class was a “carry-over” class from the junior high school; under Board of Education policy, students were able to choose their high school of attendance in the spring of 1997. Since then, cohort attrition from year to year has varied. The largest cohort attrition occurs between the tenth and eleventh grade years. We have determined two main reasons for this occurrence: SSHS has no attendance boundaries and when students leave there are few, if any, replacements; and, per board policy, there is no selection process for incoming students. As a result, those who come to SSHS because they “live across the street” instead of having a genuine interest in our specialized programs find that, by their junior year, our specialized elective choices are limiting and then leave.
(Eighth graders were enrolled for one year only as the transition was made from grades 7-8-9 to 9-10-11-12)
Santa Susana High School serves a wide variety of special needs including SDC, RSP, and SH students. Special education students participate fully in the school’s programs as prescribed by their IEPs. Currently, twenty-three (23) students have 504 plans. In addition, Santa Susana High School has 144 identified Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) students whose programs include honors and/or AP classes.
The Limited English Proficient (LEP) population of the school is 1.2% of the student body. The number of students designated Fluent English Proficient (FEP) is 8.84% of the student body. The percent of ethnic distribution and EL population of the school has been stable for the past five years, though the school’s enrollment has increased from about 970 to the present level of 1,288 students. Services are provided for all specialized populations on campus as required by law.
The Santa Susana High School student body reflects a diversity of cultures that mingle harmoniously. Santa Susana’s predominant ethnic population is white (76.54%), with Hispanic (12.88%) and Asian (5.32%) accounting for the two next largest populations. The ethnic distribution of the remainder of the student body is: 0.34% Pacific Islander; 1.54% Filipino; and 1.89% black (CBEDS).
The number of students eligible to participate in the Free and Reduced Lunch program has varied over time (from 93 to 151 students) due to increased school enrollment. However, the percentages of students who have participated in the program over the last five years (2000-01- 2005-06) have remained relatively constant with a variance of only 2.4%. Currently, 11.7% of the student body is eligible for free and reduced lunch.
Currently, there are 1,282 students enrolled in grades nine through twelve.
Although student attendance has always been good, SSHS still strives to increase it every year. Longitudinal data indicates that SSHS has been effective in slowly but steadily increasing the student attendance rates.
by percent, actual attendance of all students, entire year
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