Disaster Days

California Public School Closure Database 2002-2019

By Mohamed Al Elew, Ricardo Cano, and John Osborn D’Agostino

Working with school closure data gathered by the California Department of Education, CalMatters built an interactive database to examine the amount of instructional time public schools lose each year to natural disasters, unsafe conditions and other emergencies in California. Each closure day equals one lost day of instruction at a single public school site. Since the 2002-03 school year — the earliest for which the state has retained records — public schools have reported approximately 34,000 days lost to emergency closures. Schools not in the database have not reported closures. Use our search function and drop-down menu of years to compare schools statewide over the past 17 school years, and scroll to the bottom of each school page for reported closure details. About Our Data | Disaster Days Series