Denver Public Schools enrollment drops, district numbers show; net loss of new-to-country students

Denver Public Schools — like many districts in Colorado — has seen enrollment steadily decline in recent years.

That trend changed when DPS enrolled more students, about 4,000 new students, immigrants newly arrived from the southern border in 2023 and 2024.

In October, the district conducted its official count, and enrollment was lower than expected. Last yea,r DPS had 90,450 students

DPS is now reporting a net loss this year of nearly 1,200 students.

"Two things are true," Andrew Huber, DPS's executive director of enrollment and campus planning, said. "One is that we lost far more students year over year than we expected to lose, and two is that the severity of that decline is largely the result of the net loss of new-to-country students, new arrival students."

Each student brings funding of about $15,000 in state and federal dollars, so the net loss of students is forcing the district to adjust its budget by $18 million.

Some schools made cuts already in September during the "Fall Adjustment" period, when it was clear student numbers were down.

Other drivers of enrollment declines, according to Huber, are lower birth rates and housing affordability in the city.

"It is notable that the trend that we're experiencing is clear and having an acute effect on our system right now," Huber added. "The data that we collect tells us that a student was new to the country and then tells us that a student has left the system and we know that they were new to the country and have now left the system. In some cases, we have records that show that student may have transferred to a different jurisdiction within Colorado. That student may have transferred to a different state. That student may have left the country. And in a lot of cases, if we never hear, we never know exactly what happened to those kids."