Who attends schools where the most students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch

School enrollment patterns on the Central Coast reveal deep economic segregation along racial lines. Latinx, Black, and Native American students attend schools where most students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. White students attend schools where most students do not.

In Santa Barbara County in 2021, 60 percent of Latinx students attended schools where at least 75 percent of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, compared to eight percent of white students. In Ventura County, over one-third of Latinx students attended high-poverty schools while 37 percent of white students attended low-poverty schools. San Luis Obispo followed the same pattern: 47 percent of Latinx students attended schools where at least half the students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, compared to the county average of 31 percent.

Multiple factors create this segregation. Housing patterns shaped by discriminatory lending, zoning that concentrates affordable housing in specific areas, and school district boundaries that separate high-poverty and low-poverty neighborhoods into different schools all contribute. Addressing these patterns requires structural changes. Options include funding formulas that direct resources to high-poverty schools, policies that promote economic integration within schools, and reforms to zoning and housing policies, among other approaches.

Insights & Analyses: San Luis Obispo County

• Approximately 47 percent of Latinx students in San Luis Obispo attend a school where at least half of all students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a proportion higher than the county average (31 percent). 

Insights & Analyses: Santa Barbara County

• In Santa Barbara County, 45 percent of all students attend a school where at least three-quarters of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. An even higher proportion (60 percent) of Latinx students in the county attend schools where at least three-quarters of the population is eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch.
• About 30 percent of Santa Barbara County’s Asian American, Black, and Native American students attend a school where at least three-quarters of the student population is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, compared to only 8 percent of white students.

Insights & Analyses: Ventura County

• In Ventura County, over half of students attend a school where at least half of all students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches (55 percent). Nearly three-quarters of Ventura County’s Latinx students (74 percent) and Black students (73 percent) attend a school where at least half of all students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
• About 64 percent of Native American and 62 percent of Pacific Islander students in Ventura County attend a school where at least half of all students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.