Enrollment at Elk Creek Elementary increased by 2.3% in 2024-25 school year compared to previous school year

There were 272 students enrolled in Elk Creek Elementary during the 2024-25 school year, 2.3% more than the previous year's 266 students welcomed, according to the Colorado Department of Education.

Among the student body, 51.8% were boys and 48.2% were girls.

The most represented ethnicity among Elk Creek Elementary students was Hispanic or Latino, with 49.6% of students identifying as Hispanic or Latino.

The grade level with the highest enrollment was Pre-Kindergarten, with 45 students enrolled that year, accounting for 16.5% of the total student body.

The school is located in Garfield School District No. RE-2, and has a central office in New Castle.

In total, there were 881,065 students enrolled in Colorado during the 2024-25 school year.

Colorado’s K–12 enrollment has gradually declined each year since the pandemic, with about 3–4% fewer students in 2024 than the state’s peak enrollment in 2019.

The declines are concentrated in the early grades and certain rural areas, while some metro districts are holding steady or growing. Lower birth rates and pandemic disruptions are driving the trend. Colorado’s public schools are now serving the smallest number of students in a decade, a shift that has implications for funding and planning even as per-pupil resources increase to compensate.

Colorado’s teacher workforce faces persistent shortages and pay challenges. In the 2023–24 school year, nearly 7,000 teaching positions were vacant statewide at some point. Districts managed to fill only about 75% of those openings with fully qualified hires, leaving many to be filled by short-term substitutes, retirees, or emergency credentials for the rest, while 9% remained unfilled for the entire school year.

School	Total Enrollment
Rifle High School	778
Coal Ridge High School	578
Rifle Middle School	552
Riverside School	483
Cactus Valley Elementary School	462
Highland Elementary School	451
Graham Mesa Elementary School	424
Wamsley Elementary School	420
Kathryn Senor Elementary School	275
Elk Creek Elementary	272