A new report by the ACLU Foundations of California and the Northern California Indian Development Council paints a grim picture of what many Native American families already know firsthand: California’s public school system continues to fail Native students, denying them equitable opportunities, accurate representation, and culturally responsive support.
Titled “Stopping the Flood Waters: A Call to Transform California’s Schools in Support of Native American Students”, the March 2025 report blends historical analysis, statewide education data, and personal narratives to show how Native American students are often pushed to the margins of California’s education system.
The authors described the report as both a call to action and a toolkit for advocacy.
“California’s public schools are not providing American Indian/Alaska Native students with the equitable education to which they have a fundamental constitutional and human right,” it stated. “Many students who wish to bring their full selves to school — their culture, their connection to place, their ceremony, and their anti-colonial resistance — find themselves awash in a flood of ignorance, indifference, and hostility.”
Among the findings is how the state’s data systems drastically undercount Native students. Due to flawed federal reporting guidelines, Native youth who identify with more than one race or ethnicity are often placed into other categories like “Hispanic” or “Two or More Races,” erasing them from official counts. The result, according to the report, is that “as many as 89.8% of American Indian/Alaska Native students may not be included in the official count” in California.
The consequences are severe. Academic achievement data from the 2022–23 school year reveal that 70% of Native fourth graders and 83% of eleventh graders failed to meet grade-level math standards. Native students were also far less likely to complete the A-G course requirements for college admission. Just 32% met those requirements statewide, compared to 52% of all students.
In districts like Elk Grove Unified, the disparities are even more shocking: only 7% of Native fourth graders met English language arts standards, compared to 51% of their peers. In San Pasqual Valley Unified, not a single Native student completed the courses required to attend a four-year state university.
Graduation rates tell a similar story. While California’s overall five-year high school graduation rate was 86%, only 80% of Native students graduated. In some districts, that gap was much wider. The report emphasizes that these are not just numbers—they are symptoms of deep institutional failure.
“These failures affected students at all levels of education,” the authors write. “The failures reported below are institutional failures; they do not reflect the incredible resilience, intelligence, creativity, and knowledge of California’s Native American students and their families.”
Suspensions and school pushout were another focus of the report. Native students were suspended at more than twice the statewide rate. Many attend schools that lack nurses, psychologists, and counselors, but do have a police officer on campus.
“Native American students are also more likely than other students to be attending schools with inadequate teaching staff,” the report stated.
Yet even amid these systemic harms, Native communities continue to show resilience. “Despite the federal and state government historically and forcibly denying their rights, Tribes in California have always maintained their ties to language, culture, ceremonies, and land,” the report noted. It highlighted examples like the Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District, which developed a Native-centered curriculum aligned with state standards, and professional development programs that have helped some school staff become more culturally competent.
One student’s story: Yahmonee Hedrick (Maidu, Chickasaw, Taos Pueblo, Ute) recalled being assigned the infamous “mission project” in fourth grade. After visiting Mission San Gabriel and learning about its brutal history from a Tongva guide, he chose to write an essay condemning the assignment rather than build a model. “No Native person should ever have to build a mission again,” he wrote. Years later, Hedrick continues to share his story, urging schools to abolish harmful curriculum and embrace accurate history.
The report ended with a set of recommendations, including expanding tribal consultation in school policy, requiring culturally responsive curriculum, improving educator training, and adequately staffing the California Department of Education’s Native American education program. “California will not be able to improve its accountability metrics for American Indian/Alaska Native youth until the State adequately staffs its statewide Indigenous education program,” the report warned, noting that the state currently has just one staff person overseeing this work, ranking dead last in the nation.
Released as California prepares to finalize a statewide Native American Studies Model Curriculum in 2025, the report aims to provide not just criticism, but a roadmap for meaningful change.
“Native students need to see and hear from role models and people who look familiar and who have had life experiences such as theirs,” said Jim McQuillen, Yurok Tribal member and State Board of Education member, as quoted in the report.
Above all, the authors call for transformation that centers Native voices and tribal sovereignty: “This is not just about education reform. It is about justice, visibility, and survival.”The full report and school district data can be accessed at www.aclunc.org/StoppingTheFloodWatersAppendices.
