State lawmakers are considering giving extra funding to Colorado public school districts that are dealing with an influx of migrant students.
As more migrants move to Colorado, schools across the state are struggling to keep up . The influx of migrant students has led not only to larger class sizes, it’s also taken a toll on district budgets .
The number of migrant students who’ve enrolled in Denver Public Schools since last summer is greater than the entire population of many Colorado communities.
“Since the beginning of July, which is the beginning of our school year, we have seen over 3,400 kids join Denver Public Schools that are new to the country,” said Scott Pribble, the director of external communications for DPS. “They’ve never been in the United States before.”
Pribble said the number of migrant students enrolling in the district has picked up in recent weeks.
Data from the district backs those claims. DPS school board documents show 200 to 250 migrant students are now enrolling in the district each week. Most of the migrant students at DPS enrolled after the official count date in October.