PEAK TO PEAK — The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) on January 13 released statewide statistics on graduation and dropout rates for the 2024-2025 school year, and school enrollments for the 2025-'26 school year.  

The Peak to Peak schools of Clear Creek, Gilpin, and Nederland showed trends similar to the state averages, with increased graduation rates and decreased enrollments.

Graduation rates

In a press release, CDE noted the statewide average four-year graduation rate in 2025 rose to 85.6%. The graduation rate in 2024 was 84.2%, a 1.4% increase over the previous year.

“Colorado’s graduation and dropout data show encouraging progress, with more students earning their diplomas and fewer leaving school before graduation," Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Cordova said in the release. “We need to keep a continued focus on engagement, relevance, and the supports students need to stay connected to school and graduate prepared for their futures.”

A student has up to seven years to finish high school in Colorado, but these statistics only showed students who graduated in the typical four years.

Clear Creek School District RE-1 had a 2025 graduation rate of 93.5%, higher than the state average but below their 2024 rate of 94.2%.

Gilpin County School District RE-1 in 2025 had a four-year graduation rate of 97.3%, slightly higher than 2024, which was 97.1%.  Gilpin has consistently had graduation rates above 90%.

Nederland Middle-Senior High School showed a steep decline in their four-year graduation rate, going from 88.9% in 2024 to 81.1% in 2025—below the state average. The school's graduation rate has been trending down since 2023, when 93.9% of students graduated in four years.

Dropout rates declined by 0.3% in 2025 to 1.6% statewide. Clear Creek had a dropout rate of 1.7% while the dropout rates for Gilpin and Nederland were both under 0.5%.

Enrollment decline

Public school enrollments in 2026 continued to decline, with statewide average at 1.2%. Enrollments were calculated in October 2025. Enrollments in public schools had increased for 30 years prior to the pandemic due to net inflows of people moving to Colorado.

Since the pandemic, enrollments have decreased in urban and rural school districts throughout the state. Declining birth rates across the state and the expansion of online and home-schooling alternatives were cited as contributors to declining enrollment in public schools.

“Colorado continues to experience enrollment trends shaped by a declining school-aged population, increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and shifts toward part-time and online learning," Cordova said. “These changes require thoughtful adaptation, and our schools are working diligently to continue serving students effectively across the state.”

Clear Creek had a slight decrease in PK-12 students from 634 last year to 619 this year, for a 2.4% decline—twice the state average.

Gilpin saw a steep one-year decline going from 392 PK-12 students last year to 329 this year for a 16% decline. Both the elementary school and the secondary school saw 16% declines in enrollment.

The Nederland schools also saw decreases in enrollment. The elementary school had a decrease of 1.5% while the middle-senior high school had a decrease of 6.4%.

CDE has released the details on graduation, dropout and enrollment statistics in pdf and spreadsheet formats. These documents can be accessed at the CDE website (ed.cde.state.co.us). The link to graduation rates is cdeinfo.org/Graduation. The link to dropout rates is cdeinfo.org/Dropout, and the link to enrollments is cdeinfo.org/Enrollment.