Correction and update (October 27, 2026): The earlier story treated the districts’ different trends as evidence about how they operated, without supporting evidence. Those conclusions and unsupported immigration-enforcement, meal-program and demographic explanations have been withdrawn. Historical comparisons now stay within the state’s newer attendance method. This update adds the next published school year.

Denver^↗ET and Aurora^↗ET both reported lower chronic absenteeism rates in 2025–2026. Denver’s rate fell from 38.1% to 36.6%, while Aurora’s fell from 38.9% to 38.5%.

These are last school year’s figures, the most recent published attendance results. They change the previous year’s picture, when Denver’s rate rose and Aurora’s fell. They also leave an important exception: rates for students experiencing homelessness increased in both districts.

The overall rates moved in the same direction

Denver’s latest decline was 1.5 percentage points. Its chronic-absence count fell from 34,169 to 31,994, a reduction of 2,175 students. Aurora’s rate declined by 0.4 points, with its count falling from 15,466 to 14,722, a reduction of 744.

Aurora’s published rate declined in three consecutive comparisons, from 43.3% in 2022–2023 to 38.5% in 2025–2026. Denver’s path was uneven: 41.1%, 37.1%, 38.1% and 36.6% over those same school years. Its earlier one-point increase added 857 chronically absent students; the latest figures reverse that direction.

The difference between the two rates widened from 0.8 percentage points to 1.9 points, with Aurora’s higher in both years. These are comparisons between each district’s annual records, rather than a fixed group of students followed over time.

The comparison begins with 2022–2023 because CDE changed its attendance-counting method that year. It does not extend a recovery trend across that change.

Selected groups show different patterns

In 2025–2026, Denver reported a Black-student chronic absence rate of 41.3%, compared with Aurora’s 30.0%. Denver’s White-student rate was lower, at 16.3%, compared with Aurora’s 30.3%. The reported Hispanic-student rates were 45.2% and 44.3%, respectively.

Those differences describe the reported groups. They do not establish that the districts served equivalent populations or isolate the effects of particular district practices.

Denver’s English-learner rate declined from 44.2% to 42.4%; Aurora’s declined from 41.3% to 40.5%.

For students experiencing homelessness, Denver’s rate rose from 76.2% to 76.9%, and Aurora’s rose from 66.3% to 68.2%. The counts moved differently: Denver’s increased from 996 to 1,159, while Aurora’s decreased from 1,074 to 763. The count alone therefore does not describe the group’s rate. CDE’s files do not publish these district subgroup populations.

What the tables establish

The original district attendance workbook reports overall attendance populations, counts and rates, alongside subgroup counts and rates. The missing subgroup populations are not replaced with October enrollment or inferred from rounded percentages.

The latest overall decline in both districts is clear. The increases in homeless-student rates show why that overall result cannot describe every group. Neither finding identifies which policies or circumstances caused the change.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.