Denver Public Schools (DPS) is beginning a process that could reshape school boundaries and enrollment zones across the district.
While no final decisions have been made, district leaders are asking families for feedback before any proposals move forward.
Watch Sophia Villalba's report on how parents and guardians can have their voice heard on this decision in our report below.
DPS said this process is due to changing demographics across Denver and declining student enrollment tied to lower birth rates and changing migration patterns, a trend the district said they anticipated years ago.
“This boundary system will be designed to ensure robust access to programming and high-quality schools for all DPS students through these demographic changes,” DPS director of external communications Scott Pribble said.
Colorado funds its school districts based on the number of students. Fewer students mean less money for school districts to work with.
“The solutions we bring forward will be designed to facilitate continued access to the high-quality and robust programming experience that all DPS students deserve through the continued demographic changes and enrollment declines,” Pribble said.
It’s been about 30 years since DPS last went through a large-scale redraw process.
“In past enrollment boundary changes, DPS has strived to not impact currently attending students enrolled at a school, and new enrollment priorities would apply for newly enrolled students through SchoolChoice,” Pribble added.
The district said no boundaries or maps have been created yet and are relying on community feedback during their listening phase to help shape recommendations expected later this year.
Prior to launching this process, DPS told Denver7 they reviewed research studies and sought out to learn from what other school districts have done when engaging in attendance redistricting or rezoning for enrollment.
“We found that redistricting enrollment boundaries and zones requires a transparent, data-driven approach tailored to each neighborhood's unique characteristics rather than applying the same formula everywhere,” Pribble said.
Pribble added that boundaries alone won’t solve enrollment challenges, so the district needs a multi-phased approach with other solutions.
“Successful boundary redrawing relies on analyzing multiple types of data together, including enrollment projections, neighborhood demographics, school capacity, budget impacts, travel times, safe walking routes and school choice information, in addition to qualitative community insights,” Pribble said.
The district said by using this comprehensive data-driven approach, they can make decisions that work best for the community while addressing the different needs of each neighborhood.
“The process itself will incur minimal costs to taxpayers as we are managing it internally. Implementation costs will be considered in determining which solutions are feasible at this time,” Pribble told Denver7.
DPS said any possible changes would likely not take effect until the 2027-2028 school year.
“The superintendent is required to provide a timeline for redrawing school boundaries and enrollment zones this year,” Pribble said.
Feedback surveys are open through June 5 and virtual engagement sessions will also be held Thursday night and Friday morning.
“Additional community engagement will be planned in the fall in advance of recommendations,” Pribble added.
