Five takeaways from Colorado’s choice enrollment numbers

Teachers, students, and parents with masks on outside a school.
Faculty member Mijon Dunham, left, directs students to use closest door to their classrooms on first day of school at Hodgkins Leadership Academy in Westminster, Colorado on Thursday. Aug. 20, 2020. (Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post)

Students in Colorado crossed school district boundaries a little more than usual during the pandemic school year, according to enrollment data.

Colorado’s open enrollment laws enable students to enroll in any school or district, even if they don’t live within that school’s attendance boundaries — although that choice can be subject to space available. 

In a school year with many students working remotely and wide variability in the amount and quality of classroom and remote learning, enrollment trends changed. Many students never enrolled in schools and some who did, did not show up for classes. 

Were more of Colorado’s families willing to cross district lines this year? Chalkbeat analyzed state enrollment data to learn more. 

Here are the main takeaways from our analysis:

Slightly more students enrolled across district lines this school year than previously, but they mostly followed previous trends of movement.

In the past five years statewide, about 10% of students enrolled in a district that wasn’t their own, although that proportion slowly had been increasing. In the 2020-21 school year, it jumped to 12%. That represented a 9% increase, which was a bigger increase than in previous years. 

Where students went didn’t change much, though. The districts that already had high numbers of out-of-district students had even more this school year, and those districts that typically lost a lot of students to other districts continued to see that. 

Check out the map below to see the percentage of students in a district that are coming in from out of bounds, and the percentage of those leaving. The map also allows you to toggle to see the change from the previous school year to identify the districts that saw bigger changes during the pandemic.

Multi-district online schools have been big magnets

After the pandemic began, most school districts created versions of online or virtual learning, but a handful of districts already hosted large online schools that drew students from across the state. Overall, 13 of the 18 districts with those schools, known as multi-district online schools, experienced growth in choice in students as a percentage of their total enrollment. 

The average percentage of students exercising their choice to attend districts with multi-district online schools was 33.1% this school year, up from 29.5% the previous year. That’s a bigger jump than the average “choice in” to districts without multi-district online schools. Among districts with those online schools, some of the largest jumps were in the Durango, Mapleton, and Byers districts.

Colorado Department of Education staff also has told the State Board of Education that applications to open those types of schools have increased. 

The top 10 districts with the biggest increase in out-of-district students

The 10 districts that had the biggest growth in students coming in from out of district are spread across the state, but only one district, Mapleton, is in the Denver metro area. Mapleton officials point out that a large number of their outside students are those enrolled in the district’s multi-district online school, Connections Academy. But even without those numbers, the district has a high percentage of students from other districts.

District, Annual increase in percent of students entering from outside:

Show entries
Search:
DistrictPercent increase
Mountain Valley55.47%
Mapleton17.67%
Durango17.67%
Vilas72%
Byers12.39%
Showing 1 to 5 of 10 entries

The top 10 districts with biggest increase in students leaving for other districts

One of the districts whose percent of students leaving grew the most, Mountain Valley School District, also tallied one of the biggest jumps in the percent of students entering from outside. The district began the school year remotely, and pushed back its hybrid plan at least once, eventually returning to in-person learning by late fall. 

Untitled

Show entries
Search:
DistrictPercent increase
Sangre de Cristo School District18.93%
Moffat County School District16.03%
Bethune School District15.46%
Mountain Valley School District12.20%
Hoehne Reorganized School District10.39%
Showing 1 to 5 of 10 entries

Among the metro area districts:

Among the 15 metro area school districts, only two saw significant changes to the percentage of students coming in from out of district. One was Mapleton, where enrollment from outside districts jumped, and Sheridan, where students enrolling from outside decreased. The percentage of students leaving to attend school elsewhere changed slightly more than those who “choiced” into the 15 districts. 

One year changes in choice enrollment in metro area districts

Show entries
Search:
DistrictChange in choice inChange in choice out
Adams 12 Five Star Schools0.53%2.27%
Adams County School District 140.32%0.39%
Aurora Public Schools-0.31%0.21%
Boulder Valley School District0.42%0.57%
Cherry Creek School District-0.94%0.49%
Showing 1 to 5 of 15 entries
The Latest

Though the city’s Education Department seemed poised to implement a systemwide ban last summer, Mayor Eric Adams pumped the brakes on that plan, spurred in part by concerns over the costs of implementation.

Early intervention services in Illinois are often blocked by low funding and bureaucracy.

School leaders said the elimination of the federal education department would hurt vulnerable students, including students with disabilities and multilingual learners.

Desde hace décadas, la autoridad federal evitó detener a inmigrantes en las escuelas. El cambio de Trump puede provocar más miedo y ausentismo entre los niños inmigrantes.

Since a 2023 shooting, Tennessee has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to fortify its schools

Two bills advanced by Indiana lawmakers would cut DEI programs and initiatives at schools and universities. They echo previous fights in the legislature over critical race theory.