While enrollment in Colorado public schools has fallen to its lowest in a decade, changes in student counts vary widely from district to district and school to school.
Statewide enrollment dipped 0.2% in the fall from the last school year, dropping to 881,464 students in preschool through 12th grade, according to data released earlier this week by the Colorado Department of Education. And enrollment declines have impacted most of Colorado’s 178 school districts — 113 are serving fewer students this school year than last year.
Much of the enrollment decrease can be explained by lower birth rates and a decline in the number of total births in Colorado in a given year, according to state demographer Elizabeth Garner.
Other factors, including a jump in the number of families pursuing home-schooling and online education as well as what Garner calls “a slowdown in migration,” are also affecting the number of kids who show up to public schools.
The state predicts the number of school-aged children in Colorado will continue to be on the decline until 2030.
Still, 65 school districts reported enrollment numbers consistent with the last school year or even higher enrollment.
How has enrollment changed at your child’s school? And how are student demographics shifting at your school? Statewide, the number of white students in public schools is declining while the number of some students of color is on the rise. Explore the interactive map above, created for The Colorado Sun by the nonpartisan Keystone Policy Center, to understand year-by-year changes to student counts over the past five years.
CORRECTION: This story was updated at 3:39 p.m. Jan. 23, 2024, to correct enrollment data detailing the percentage of students of color and percentage of students who qualified for free and reduced price lunch at Colorado schools prior to the 2022-23 school year.