DS21’s high school is exactly like @VickiSoCal’s. DS17’s is like that except that no social studies at all is offered in 9th because that is when students take “Freshman Seminar” (pointless) and Health.
We have a 6-period day, which is limiting as far as the number of classes that can be taken. There are evening World History and US History classes at the community college, and a number of students take those in place of those AP classes. They are more like college classes in that there is less hand-holding and the grades are based on essays for both homework and tests. They are not like the AP classes in that they cover what the professor wants to focus on, not trying to provide a thin overview of the entirety of history.
California schools tend to limit the number of classes that qualify as “honors” because the UC system typically only certifies AP and IB classes as earning the honors point for UC admissions except for some precalculus and foreign language classes. So, in the case of CA schools, there is a strong disincentive to “offer a strong social studies class, that includes analysis and writing, without having to be an AP class.”
For example, here are the offerings of a couple of the top private high schools in California. Notice that the only social science classes (category "a) that get the UC honors point are the AP classes.
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/details/3248/
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/details/3531/