New enrollment data for the 2025-26 school year shows Colorado’s steady enrollment decline is growing. Falling birth rates, migration trends and a notable shift toward online and homeschooled enrollment were cited as the main culprits.

Colorado schools saw a 1.2% decline in enrollment for the 2025-26 academic year, or a loss of over 10,000 students, according to data released by the Colorado Department of Education Tuesday.

Enrollment is determined by the fall student count, which is collected annually on Oct. 1 and is used to determine state funding for public schools. As outlined in the School Finance Act, the state’s four-year enrollment averaging model when it comes to per-pupil funding means funding will go down for schools that saw enrollment declines, but with some cushioning.

The state’s enrollment data for students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade mirrors national post-pandemic declines in enrollment, which began to drop in 2020 after 30 years of growth. Nationally, student enrollment is projected to decline by almost 4 million from 2019 to 2032, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“Prior to the pandemic, Colorado’s public school enrollment numbers had a steady increase over 30 years,” DJ Loerzel, chief information and innovation officer at the Colorado Department of Education, said during an online briefing. “We had a dramatic decline in 2020-21 when school shut down, followed by a modest increase in 2021-22. However, since then, student enrollment has declined every year.” 

Loerzel said two major factors for the drop in enrollment are declining birth rates in Colorado and population decreases in several counties.

Data from the Colorado State Demography Office shows a declining number of births statewide across the last two decades and population declines in 30% of Colorado counties over the last 10 years, most of which are rural.

“Generally speaking, I think most districts have anticipated that there would be declines in enrollment due to declining birth rates that we’ve seen since the recession of 2010, and all of the lower birth rates at that point are kind of rolling through our system,” Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said during the briefing. “For the most part … we did anticipate seeing that happen.”

Enrollment data also notes a shift toward part-time homeschooling and online learning, which has been on the rise since the pandemic. Students registered in online schools and education programs increased by 2.9% to 34,617 during the 2025-26 school year.

The number of students reported as homeschooled full-time increased by 5.5% to 10,367 students in 2025, a jump of almost 20% since 2022. The increase in students being homeschooled part-time is even greater, up by more than 51% since 2022.

Enrollment data gathered in October 2025 shows enrollment dropped in nine out of 13 grade levels, with the largest drop of 4.5% coming from third grade classrooms. The only grades to see higher enrollment compared to 2024 were pre-kindergarten, fourth, sixth and 12th grades, the last of which Loerzel said could suggest a growing interest in extended year programs like ASCENT and P-TECH.

Hispanic, multilingual students see significant enrollment declines

Despite overall decreases in enrollment, moderate growth for students belonging to some racial and ethnic groups signals that Colorado’s classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse. Students identified as Asian, Black or multiracial saw enrollment increases of just over 1%. Students identifying as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander saw the largest increase at 2.7%.

Meanwhile, white students saw the largest decline in enrollment, 1.7%, or 7,318 fewer students than in 2024.

The enrollment of Hispanic students also declined by 1.4%, a significant shift from 2024 when Colorado saw an increase of 8,722 Hispanic students from the previous year stemming from a surge in migration, according to the department.

The influx of newcomer students to Colorado during the 2023-24 school year resulted in the passage of House Bill 24-1389, which provided $24 million in one-time funding dollars for school districts that enrolled newcomers after the 2023 October head count, according to a Tuesday release from the department. 

Currently, Hispanic students make up 36% of the state’s student population.

“This year, districts reported 4,395 fewer Hispanic students. While we can’t determine precisely where these students went or specific reasons for the decline, the data likely reflects adjustment following unusually high enrollment from the previous year,” Loerzel said.

In terms of student groups, multilingual learner students also saw a 5.7% decrease in enrollment, or roughly 6,000 less students than in 2024. By far the largest drop in enrollment came from students experiencing homelessness, with 19% fewer students enrolling compared to 2024. Loerzel said the district doesn’t have sufficient information to speculate on why this drop is so significant.

“We have a 19% drop in the number of students experiencing homelessness from 2024,” Loerzel said. “While you would hope this is good news, we continue to look into reasons for this decline and cannot speculate right now.”

Enrollment drops look even steeper for Colorado’s ski towns

Several districts across Colorado’s Western Slope saw notable enrollment declines, particularly in rural ski towns. The Eagle, Roaring Fork RE-1, Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Summit, Garfield 16 and other school districts all saw higher enrollment drops than the 1.2% statewide average, led by Routt RE 3 (6.7%), West Grand (5.7%) and East Grand (6.5%) school districts. Garfield Re-2 saw enrollment dip by a smaller 1.1% — just under Colorado’s enrollment decline.

Some of the districts, despite losing students after the 2025 count, have seen positive enrollment trends over the past five years. Garfield Re-2, Garfield 16 and Roaring Fork RE-1 in Garfield County have more students than they did during the 2020-21 school year, which is good news for averaged per-pupil funding.