Charter School Marketing in California: Funding, Lotteries, and the Enrollment Math

Charter enrollment over three years.

Charter enrollment slipped 0.3% in 2025-26 after rising 2.5% the year before, and is up 2.3% over the two years. All public enrollment fell 0.5% and then 1.3%, down 1.8% over the two years (calculated from CDE).

Charter share by grade band, 2025-26.

Method note. School and student counts for 2025-26 come from CDE's "Fingertip Facts on Education in California." The three-year and grade-band tables are calculated from CDE's Census Day enrollment files, state totals, for 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 (charter shares are charter students divided by all public students). Earlier years are not shown. Counts of charter schools differ by source and date: CDE reported 1,283 operative charter schools in May 2024, and the California Charter Schools Association counts campuses and independent study programs. We use CDE's 2025-26 figure. Most petitions to open a charter go to a local school district board, county boards of education hear appeals and approve countywide benefit charters, and seven districts are all charter (CDE, May 2024).

What this means for enrollment marketing. California's charter sector is the largest in the country and gained share while the rest of the public system shrank, and its share is highest in middle school grades. A family chooses your school over the neighborhood district school, the next charter, and a private school.

Taylor Wiz measures what we control: the cost of a submitted application. You know your own yield, meaning the share of submitted applications that become enrolled, attending students. Divide our number by your yield and you have your marketing cost per enrolled student.

The Taylor Wiz figure. Across 20 charter school accounts, from October 2025 to September 2026, a submitted application cost $113 in Meta ad spend over the full year, and $103 from October through July. None of the 20 accounts is in California. The seasonal detail is in the Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark 2026.

The math at different yields, using $113:

Against the base grant. At a 50% yield, $226 in ads is 1.7% to 2.1% of the $13,296 and $10,860 base grants per ADA above, before any other funding.

What this table does not include. Staff time, open houses, printed materials, and any cost other than Meta ad spend.

Method. Total Meta ad spend divided by applications marked submitted in our CRM, counted only in months with at least $300 in ad spend. All 20 accounts are charter schools in other states. The full method is on Cost Per Enrolled Student.

What your ads must match (Education Code 47605, subdivision e):

1. Open to every student who wishes to attend. A charter school may not limit admission by where a student lives in California, except for the preference rules below.
2. A public random drawing when applications exceed capacity. Existing students of the school are not in the drawing.
3. Only preferences your authorizer approved. The law lists current students and students who live in the district, and allows siblings and children of staff and founders when the authorizer approves them at a public hearing. Mention a preference only if your school uses it.
4. No required parent volunteer hours. A preference or admission cannot depend on them.

Charter schools also may not ask for a student's records before enrollment (CDE). Do not promise a seat or imply that applying early or following up improves drawing odds, unless a listed preference applies. We did not find a California rule that names charter advertising either way. Whether a specific campaign is an appropriate use of public funds is a question for your governing board, counsel, auditor, and authorizer.

1. Meta advertising. Facebook and Instagram campaigns aimed at families in your enrollment area, timed to your application window.
2. Parent outreach. Our outreach team contacts every inquiry within 15 minutes during business hours, by the next business day otherwise, and never later than 48 hours. They work with each family until an application is submitted. See Parent Outreach.
3. Enrollment websites. Inquiry and application paths built to convert on a phone.
4. Creative and video. Ads and video that show your school the way families experience it.
5. Reporting. Submitted applications and cost per submitted application, by month and by ad.

Your school takes it from there: drawing, offers, registration, and enrollment. We report submitted applications because that is the step we control.