The drop in students — a 1.1% overall reduction — comes as the state’s largest K-12 districts reported larger-than-expected enrollment declines for the 2025-26 academic year, a trend officials at Denver Public Schools and Jeffco Public Schools attributed to fewer immigrant students attending their schools as the Trump administration ramped up mass deportations.
Statewide, districts enrolled 870,793 students in preschool through 12th grade when the official count took place in October, which is down from 881,065 pupils in 2024, according to new data released Tuesday by the Colorado Department of Education.
“Colorado continues to experience enrollment trends shaped by a declining school-aged population, increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and shifts toward part-time and online learning,” Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said in a statement. “These changes require thoughtful adaptation, and our schools are working diligently to continue serving students effectively across the state.”
The agency also released data Tuesday that showed Colorado’s high school graduation rate reached its highest level in more than 10 years as 85.6% of students received their diplomas on time during the 2024-25 academic year.
The last academic year’s graduation rate increased by 1.4 percentage points from the previous school year as more than 60,380 students graduated in four years, the data showed.
The statewide dropout rate for 2024-25 also fell by less than a percentage point from the previous year to 1.6%, or 7,437 pupils. It’s the lowest rate in state history, according to the education department.
In Colorado, students can take up to seven years to graduate from high school. The dropout rate reflects how many students in seventh through 12th grade left school before graduating.
“Colorado’s graduation and dropout data show encouraging progress, with more students earning their diplomas and fewer leaving school before graduation,” Córdova said in a statement.
DPS, the state’s largest district, saw its four-year graduation rate increase from 79.9% during the 2023-24 academic year to 81.9% last year.
A multi-year decline
Public school enrollment has been falling nationwide in recent years as a result of fewer Americans having babies. Colorado’s changing demographics and high housing prices have also altered where families live.
Statewide, enrollment peaked at 913,223 students in 2019.
In October 2020, during the first year of the pandemic, enrollment dropped 3.3% — or by more than 30,000 students — from the previous year.
Since 2020, enrollment had steadily fallen by less than 1% annually, except for a small, 0.4% increase of 3,318 students in 2021 when schools mostly resumed in-person learning.
An influx of immigrant families to Colorado in recent years has provided a buffer to districts experiencing declining enrollment, but the federal government has ramped up mass deportations since President Donald Trump resumed office a year ago.
Statewide, enrollment of multilingual learners dropped by 5.7% — or nearly 6,000 students — to 99,385 children between October 2024 and October 2025, according to the education department.
The state also saw 4,395 fewer Latino students enroll in schools this academic year compared to the 2024-25 school year, which is when the population’s enrollment jumped by 8,722 pupils from the previous year.
Low enrollment felt by urban, rural districts
Declining enrollment is hitting districts financially as they receive less per-pupil funding from the state when there are fewer children in their classrooms. This was most recently seen with Jeffco Public Schools, the state’s second-largest district, which expects to run a $49 million deficit for the 2025-26 academic year and is cutting jobs.
Jeffco Public Schools, which has 74,191 students, expected enrollment to drop by 933 pupils this year, but instead lost 1,530 students — a $5 million hit to the district’s revenues.
Smaller districts will have an even harder time adjusting their budgets to declining enrollment, said Tracie Rainey, executive director of the Colorado School Finance Project.
“When you lose students, they don’t all come out of one building or one grade level,” she said. “So it doesn’t mean that you can cut staff or resources easily.”
Districts in mountain communities, including Summit County and Aspen, are also seeing larger-than-expected drops in enrollment because of federal immigration policies, said Frank Reeves, director of operations for the Colorado Rural Schools Alliance.
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“We are losing some kids that we don’t want to lose because of that,” he said.
Statewide, the number of students who are homeschooled jumped by 5.5% to 10,367 pupils in the fall. By comparison, about 9,826 students were homeschooled in 2024, data showed.
The state also saw a 2.9% increase in students registered in online programs. More than 34,600 pupils attend school online compared to 33,629 students in 2024, according to the data.
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