A brief that cites confidently and cannot show its work is a liability. This page exists so that any figure used in the presentation can be checked, and so that the limits of the evidence are visible rather than hidden.
Verified primary or official source. Secondary press or third-party reporting, attribute rather than assert. Unverified could not be confirmed, and is therefore not used.
San Diego County scale
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| County TK-12 enrollment, 2025-26 | 472,948 | V CDE DataQuest, CALPADS Fall 1 census |
| School districts | 42 (43 with SDCOE's Juvenile Court and Community Schools) | V sdcoe.net |
| Charter schools | about 130 | V sdcoe.net About |
| Schools | about 780 | V sdcoe.net |
| Teachers countywide | about 26,000 | V sdcoe.net |
| SDCOE employees | more than 1,100 | V sdcoe.net Work at SDCOE |
| Students SDCOE educates directly | about 1,200 across 21 sites | V sdcoe.net |
| English learners | 15.8% (about 74,700). EL plus RFEP is roughly 30% | V DataQuest ELAS, 2025-26 |
| Largest student group | Hispanic or Latino 49.5%; White 27.3%; Two or more 7.2%; Asian 7.1%; African American 4.1%; Filipino 3.4% | V DataQuest, 2025-26 |
| EL range across districts | National Elementary 46.4% and San Ysidro 45.3% against San Dieguito Union High 3.3% and Coronado 3.8% | V DataQuest, 2025-26 |
| Socioeconomically disadvantaged, current year | not stated in this brief | U DataQuest student-group reports unavailable. SDCOE's own 2022-23 figure was 51%. |
| Students with disabilities, current year | not stated in this brief | U A 2026 press figure of "almost 20 percent" is journalism, not CDE data |
Connectivity and the divide
| Figure | Value | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Students under-connected or without home internet | 20% to 40% of student populations, district by district | S SANDAG Regional Digital Equity Strategy, adopted December 2021 |
| Fixed broadband access | 42% unincorporated county against 97% urban | S SANDAG, 2021 |
| Households under $50,000 with no broadband subscription | 23% | S SANDAG, 2021 |
| Affordable Connectivity Program ends | a $30/month subsidy removed from over 100,000 low-income San Diego households | S 2024, federal program expiry |
| City of San Diego households without wired broadband subscription | about 16%, nearly 86,000 homes; 30% among low-income households | S City of San Diego Broadband Master Plan, 2026 |
An honest caveat
There is no dedicated 2025 or 2026 countywide digital divide report. The connectivity figures above are from 2021 and 2026 sources and are used as directional, not current. Any figure presented is dated out loud.
The capability gap
| Finding | Source |
|---|---|
| District-provided AI training rose from 23% (fall 2023) to 48% (fall 2024), but 67% in low-poverty districts against 39% in high-poverty districts. Nearly all district leaders reported the training was optional, and teachers described it as one-off rather than ongoing. | V RAND Corporation, American School District Panel |
| 60% of US teachers used AI during the 2024-25 school year. Weekly users reported saving about 5.9 hours a week, roughly six weeks a year. Only 32% used it weekly; 40% not at all. | S Gallup and Walton Family Foundation, n=2,232, fielded March-April 2025, released June 2025 |
| 79% of districts report established official AI guidelines, up from 57% in 2025. | S CoSN 2026 State of EdTech, 607 K-12 leaders across 44 states |
California policy
- SB 1288 (Becker, 2024) created the California AI in Education Working Group, convened by CDE. At least half the members must be current classroom teachers. Guidance due Jan 1 2026, model policy due Jul 1 2026, legislative report due Jan 1 2027. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
- CDE guidance, "Guidance for the Safe and Effective Use of Artificial Intelligence in California Public Schools," released to the field January 9 2026. Explicitly advisory under Education Code 33308.5. cde.ca.gov/ci/pl/aiincalifornia.asp
- CDE model policy, June 2026. 26 governing-board principles, non-binding, designed for local adaptation. Includes "Privacy by Design," the provision that guardians may request timely human review of AI-informed decisions, and that AI-detection software should not be the sole basis for discipline. cde.ca.gov/ci/pl/aipolicy.asp
- AB 2876 (Berman, 2024), effective Jan 1 2025, directs the Instructional Quality Commission to consider incorporating AI literacy into the mathematics, science, and history-social science frameworks at their next revision. The verb is "consider," not "require."
- County of San Diego Board Policy A-140, an Artificial Intelligence Board Policy, adopted by the Board of Supervisors September 30 2025 after an ad-hoc subcommittee and three public sessions. Commits the County to a public inventory of AI systems.
International comparison
| System | Claim used | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Estonia | Tiger Leap announced February 1996. AI Leap announced February 25 2025, live September 1 2025. Teacher training completed before student access. Phase 1: 20,000 students and 3,000 teachers. Deployed on ChatGPT Edu after opening negotiations with both OpenAI and Anthropic. | V Estonian Ministry of Education release |
| Singapore | ICT masterplan cycles unbroken since 1997. Student Learning Space launched to all MOE schools 2018. National Digital Literacy Programme March 2020, device per secondary student by end 2021. 100 hours of PD entitlement per teacher per year. | V MOE Singapore |
| South Korea | Roughly $740M earmarked for teacher training 2024-26. Rollout March 2025; retreat to voluntary trial January 2025; August 4 2025 the National Assembly narrowed the legal definition of textbook, excluding AI digital textbooks. Adoption fell from about 37% to about 19%. One survey found 80.4% of teachers negative. | V World Bank (funding); S Korea Herald and Rest of World (rollout and adoption) |
| Finland | Elements of AI launched May 2018. EU enrollment reached 244,902 by April 2021, about 0.055% against a 1% target. About 40% of enrollees were women. | V University of Helsinki |
| China | State Council New Generation AI Development Plan, July 2017. Beijing mandated at least 8 class hours of AI instruction per academic year from September 1 2025 across 1,400+ schools. | V State Council; S CGTN (Beijing mandate) |
| UAE | First Minister of State for AI appointed October 2017. K-12 AI curriculum mandatory in government schools from 2025-26, folded into an existing course with no added class hours. | S Press reporting. The "first in the world" framing is attributed, not asserted. |
Three precision rules observed throughout
- South Korea's AI digital textbooks were not banned or cancelled. They lost their legal status as textbooks, which ended guaranteed funding and mandatory use. Schools may still adopt them.
- Estonia did not deploy Claude. It opened negotiations with multiple frontier labs and deployed on ChatGPT Edu.
- Estonia has no outcome data yet. The University of Tartu study is ongoing. It is a conditions story, not a results story.
SDCOE organizational facts
- North Star goal, exact wording: "SDCOE's North Star goal is to reduce poverty and increase belongingness through public education." sdcoe.net/about-sdcoe/sdcoe-north-star
- Strategic Plan 2025-30, two priorities and seven desired outcomes by December 2030. Outcome 2 commits to 80% of staff strongly agreeing they can access professional growth, co-creation, and cross-division collaboration.
- Coordinator, Artificial Intelligence classification approved by the Personnel Commission July 15 2026. Names the SDCOE North Star AI Task Force and the seven collaborating divisions.
- 2024 San Diego County Grand Jury commended SDCOE for leadership and support of districts on K-12 cybersecurity, and noted SDCOE has no oversight authority but "can exert influence by providing a broad set of products and services."
- County offices carry ten LCAP state priorities, not eight. The two additional are Priority 9, expelled pupils, and Priority 10, foster youth.