School districts navigate funding challenges associated with enrollment drop due to COVID-19

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Student enrollment in schools is down due to COVID-19, according to new data from the Colorado Department of Education.

Colorado saw 883,281 students enrolled in public schools this year compared to 2019. That's a decrease of nearly 30,000 students.

District 11 in Colorado Springs ranks among the top five districts in the state and highest in El Paso County.

"Enrollment is our lifeblood, that's what provides the revenue stream for our school districts," Chief Financial Officer Glenn Gustafson said.

So far, the district has lost over 2,000 students this year and $3-4 million dollars in funding.

"That's this year. If we don't figure out a way to get those kids back next year, or at least a bunch of them, then we're going to be down again next year."

Academy District 20 experienced the next highest enrollment drop in the county, with a decrease of nearly 900 students and $3.8 million dollars in funding.

"We've never been down. This is a very first for us," district spokesperson, Allison Cortez said.

The largest enrollment drop statewide was in younger grade levels, including kindergarten, which saw a loss of just under 5,800 students or roughly 9%. Grades 1-5 also experienced similar losses.

"We had far fewer kindergartners than we've had in years past. We think that people thought, well it's just kindergarten, we can take this year and maybe they can skip over kindergarten and start first grade. Or, maybe we'll start kindergarten a year later," Cortez said. 

To help offset the financial strain, both districts implemented several measures.

"When the pandemic hit back in March, we immediately implemented a spending freeze and hiring freeze," Gustafson said, which saved about 10% of the general budget.

Academy District 20, according to Cortez, utilized its reserve funds in addition to administrative department budget cuts.

"We are really lucky to have a very healthy reserve. So this year, we were able to dip into our reserve to kind of compensate for some of that loss," Cortez said.

Both districts said the ultimate goal is to prevent any disruptions to the classroom.

"Our goal is always to keep any type of budget cut away from the classroom. We want to make sure those budget cuts stay as far away from students in the classroom as possible," Cortez said.

According to the data, only two districts in the county gained students. Falcon District 49 enrolled 94 new students and Hanover enrolled 5.