Denver’s public school system has been taking in as many as 250 new students a week since the new year, which it attributes to the increase in the number of migrants arriving in the city.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero called the situation an “unprecedented challenge” in a message to the community posted on the district’s website. The district said the influx of new students will cost an additional $837,000 “to support additional needs across the system.”
From July 1, 2023 to January 2024, there were 3,221 new-to-country students with more than 1,300 coming to Denver schools since Oct. 1, 2023, the district stated.
The district is hiring more staff to deal with the increase in students and focusing on hiring people who are bilingual, according to the superintendent.
“The pace of new arrivals has remained steady since the start of 2024, with roughly 200-250 students joining us each week,” a report to the school board stated last week.
On Feb. 5, the city of Denver started enforcing 42-day limits on migrants living in city-owned shelters.
“We are watching enrollment data closely over the next few weeks to see if/how our student population moves in response,” the report stated.
The school district provides a phone number to call “to speak to someone in your language.”
The district has struggled with dwindling enrollment since the pandemic. Enrollment reached 93,800 in the 2019-20 school year and then fell to 90,300 in the 2020-2021 pandemic year. In 2021-22, enrollment stayed about the same at 90,250 and then dropped to 89,200 in 2022-23.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending migrants from Texas to sanctuary cities across the U.S. On Feb. 12, Abbott posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that Texas has bused more than 16,200 migrants to Denver.
“Texas will not stop until President Biden secures the border,” Abbott stated on X.
Denver Public Schools did not respond to an email seeking comment.
