22 Colorado Districts Stayed Below the State Average in All Six Years

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Colorado's chronic absenteeism rate rose to 34.6% in 2021-22 before easing to 28.5% in 2024-25. Across that six-year panel, 22 districts stayed below the statewide rate every year. The comparison is limited to 92 districts with a published total in all six years and at least 500 students in each year.

The set includes five districts enrolling more than 20,000 students in 2024-25: Douglas County^↗ (60,681), Cherry Creek^↗ (53,098), St Vrain Valley^↗ (31,915), Boulder Valley^↗ (27,649), and Academy 20^↗ (26,946). It also includes Holyoke (547 students), Peyton (586), and Yuma (790).

The 22

Cheyenne Mountain 12^↗ has the lowest 2024-25 rate in the set at 10.5% and a six-year average of 11.9%. The district enrolled 3,767 students. Its rate was not uniformly low: it reached 20.5% in 2021-22, the year Colorado peaked at 34.6%.

In response to written questions from The COEdTribune, Superintendent David Peak forwarded a reply from Assistant Superintendent Stacy Aldridge, who described a daily routine rather than a program. "Without exception, families are contacted every day if students are absent from school," Aldridge wrote. Campus staff, according to that response, work to reduce the barriers that keep students from getting to school and to build classrooms where students "feel they belong and don't want to miss instruction."

Aldridge, in written answers, pointed past attendance policy to what families encounter. "Families choose Cheyenne Mountain for the inclusive community feel and appreciate the numerous opportunities students have available to them in their school journey," Aldridge wrote, naming free breakfast for all elementary students and extended hours after school for high school students who need extra academic support or a quiet place to study. Aldridge added: "We also celebrate 'small wins' on a daily basis so students feel recognized for their efforts." When a student comes in late or arrives after an absence, Aldridge wrote, office staff say, "It is great to see you."

Cheyenne Mountain also pushed back on the 2021-22 comparison. "The 2021-2022 school year was on the heels of COVID so that is a tough benchmark to compare to this current year," Aldridge wrote in an email. Aldridge cited attendance and chronic-absence figures the district takes from the Colorado Department of Education's accountability reporting, a different source from the six-year attendance file behind this analysis, and rejected the idea that the district has an unsolved problem: "I would say there isn't an 'unsolved problem' per se but we will continue to make daily connections with students to be in our schools where they are welcomed openly."

Asked in a follow-up email which school year that accountability figure covers, Aldridge said the district's chronically absent rate of nine and a half percent is from 2025-26, a year not yet included in the six-year attendance file behind this analysis. That file's most recent year, 2024-25, puts Cheyenne Mountain's chronic-absence rate at 10.5%.

Eaton RE-2 is next at 12.8%, with a six-year average of 17.1%. At the other end, Lamar Re-2 posted 28.2%, just below the state's 28.5% in 2024-25. Lake County R-1 was at 25.7%. Staying below the state line every year did not mean staying near a pre-pandemic benchmark.

Meeker RE-1 illustrates that distinction. Its rate rose in each of the five annual transitions, from 11.5% in 2019-20 to 22.5% in 2024-25. It remained below Colorado every year because the statewide rates were higher, not because Meeker avoided a sustained increase.

The leaders took different routes

The five districts with the lowest 2024-25 rates did not all move in lockstep with Colorado. Peyton matched the state's direction in all five year-to-year transitions. Cheyenne Mountain, Eaton, Buena Vista, and Lewis-Palmer 38^↗ each diverged from the statewide direction at least once.

That is direct evidence about the shape of the lines, not evidence of a shared cause. The state files report enrollment and chronic absence; they do not identify which attendance practices, family circumstances, or local conditions produced a district's path.

Lewis-Palmer averaged 14.7% over six years and was at 15.8% in 2024-25. Littleton 6^↗ averaged 16.8% and posted 16.0% in the latest year. Their common feature in this analysis is comparative: each district's published rate stayed below Colorado's in every year of the complete panel.

Size did not determine membership

Eight of the 22 districts enrolled at least 5,000 students in 2024-25, including five above 20,000. Douglas County was the largest at 60,681 students. The set also contained seven districts with 500 to 999 students, seven with 1,000 to 4,999, and three with 5,000 to 19,999.

The size distribution does not show that size has no effect on attendance. It shows only that districts from every size band met this particular six-year test. Explaining why they did would require evidence beyond the chronic-absence file.

What consistency does and does not mean

Being below the state average every year does not mean a district has solved chronic absenteeism. Cherry Creek's 25.3% is roughly one in four enrolled students. Academy 20^↗'s 19.7% is roughly one in five. Both districts qualified because Colorado's rate was higher in every year.

The 22 consistent performers represent 24% of the 92 districts in the complete comparison universe. The standard is demanding: six published years, at least 500 students in every year, and a chronic absenteeism rate below Colorado's each time.

The list is best read as a starting point for questions, not an answer about causes. The direct evidence identifies where a pattern persisted. Cheyenne Mountain's account of daily contact with families and a welcome at the office door is the kind of district-level detail the state files cannot supply, and it covers one district out of 22. Explaining the rest would take the same from each.

Chronic absenteeism rates and enrollment counts come from the Colorado Department of Education's attendance statistics for the 2019-20 through 2024-25 school years.

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

St Vrain Valley - EdTribune CO - Colorado Education Data

22 Colorado Districts Stayed Below the State Average in All Six Years

The 22

The leaders took different routes

Size did not determine membership

What consistency does and does not mean