Douglas County Re 1
Only 19 of 93 Colorado Districts Have Recovered to Pre-COVID Absence Levels
Five years after COVID-19 disrupted attendance patterns across Colorado, only 19 of 93 measurable districts have chronic absenteeism rates at or below where they stood in 2019-20. That is a 20.4% reco...
Six Suburban Giants All Hit Record Lows
The six largest suburban districts ringing Denver educate nearly one in three Colorado public school students. In 2025-26, every single one recorded its lowest enrollment on file.
Colorado's Charter Sector Hits a Wall at 16%
For a decade, Colorado's charter schools were the one part of public education that kept growing. While traditional schools shed students year after year, charters added 50,676, pushing their share fr...
Three in Four Colorado Districts Never Recovered from COVID
Five years after the pandemic emptied classrooms across the Front Range, Jefferson County R-1 has 9,855 fewer students than it did in 2019-20. Douglas County Re 1 is down 5,770. Adams 12 Five Star Sch...
White Kindergartners Down 21% in a Decade
Colorado's kindergarten classrooms in 2025-26 look nothing like they did a decade ago. White kindergartners numbered 27,385 in the October 2025 count, down 7,400 from 34,785 in 2016. That is a 21.3% d...
Half of Colorado's Districts Just Hit All-Time Lows
Jefferson County R-1 has closed 21 schools since 2021, cut 139 positions from next year's budget, and still cannot outrun the math. In 2025-26, the state's second-largest district enrolled 74,177 stud...
Jefferson County Has Lost 12,521 Students in 10 Years
Jefferson County R-1 enrolled 74,177 students this fall. A decade ago, it enrolled 86,698. The difference, 12,521 students, is nearly the size of the entire Pueblo City 60 school district. No other la...
No Single Majority: White Students Drop Below 50% in Colorado
For the first time in the history of Colorado's public school system, no single racial or ethnic group constitutes a majority of students. White enrollment fell to 49.2% in 2024-25, then slipped furth...