A new national study shows many Sonoma County elementary and middle school students are lagging far behind their California peers in recovering from pandemic-era learning loss.
Per the Press Democrat, the 2026 Education Scorecard reveals that students in the county’s largest districts—including Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Cotati-Rohnert Park, and Windsor—have continued to lose ground in math and reading. Local education officials attribute the steep decline to a prolonged 17-month remote learning period, compounded by previous disruptions from area wildfires.
While a few smaller districts have bucked the trend and made academic gains, the county’s largest student populations remain nearly one to two grade levels below state benchmarks.