School District No. 3 schools report 1,532 suspensions and expulsions in 2022-23 school year

During the 2022-23 school year, school administrators in School District No. 3 handed out 1,532 disciplinary actions, according to the Colorado Department of Education. That’s an increase over the previous school year.

White students suffered the most disciplinary actions (38.1%), followed by Hispanic or Latino students (33.4%), multiracial students (14.8%), and Black students (10.5%).

In comparison, Hispanic or Latino students made up 33.3%, white students accounted for 44.4%, Black students for 8.9%, Asian students for 1.5%, multiracial students for 10.9%, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander students for 1% of overall enrollment in El Paso schools during 2022-23.

A total of 76 students had to be referred to law enforcement during the 2022-23 school year.

Colorado lawmakers approved a $43.9 billion budget for 2025-26 that increases funding for K-12 schools and higher education, though by less than originally promised due to a $1.2 billion shortfall. The plan raises average per-student spending to $11,852 and boosts early childhood funding, while allowing colleges to raise tuition to offset smaller-than-requested state allocations.

Colorado’s K–12 public school enrollment has declined modestly for four years in a row, and current totals remain below pre-pandemic levels. The official October 2024 student count recorded 881,065 students (pre-K through 12) across Colorado. This was a drop of only 399 students (0.1%) from the previous year, but it brought enrollment to its lowest point since 2013.

Some students may appear more than once in discipline data if they received multiple types of measures in the same year, which can cause category totals to exceed the real number of individual students.

*Some figures are suppressed by the Department of Education to protect student privacy.