DPS adopts $3.085 billion budget for 2026-27, with longer-term deficits projected

Denver Public Schools’ board adopted the district’s 2026-27 budget June 8, approving $1.676 billion in general-fund appropriations and $3.085 billion across all funds in the annual spending plan state law requires districts to adopt before June 30.

The adopted budget record shows the board first amended the proposed budget and then adopted it for the fiscal year that begins July 1. District budget materials say the biggest late changes from the May proposal came from SB26-023, Colorado’s 2026 School Finance Act, and from an update reflecting the previously approved acquisition of Centennial Hall by Emily Griffith Technical College.

Even with those changes, district staff projected in the adopted budget materials a $4.8 million net increase in general-fund balance for 2026-27. The same materials project a cumulative four-year deficit of $28 million after that year in the district’s five-year forecast.

According to DPS’ adopted budget materials, the main pressures on the outlook are declining enrollment, compensation growth and inflation. The district also listed risks that could worsen the picture, including compensation and benefits rising faster than revenue, higher uncollectible property taxes and the possibility of reduced state K-12 funding.

DPS said in the same materials that lower-than-budgeted spending in 2025-26, future legislative changes that increase school funding or purchasing power, and new revenue opportunities could partly offset those pressures. The district said that “with timely and deliberate actions,” it can maintain a balanced and sustainable financial position.

On charter funding, DPS said in the adopted budget packet that SB26-023 changed the formula for charter-school shares by removing a prior benefit for charter schools authorized before 2005 with low free-and-reduced-lunch populations and by treating charter schools more like individual districts in the calculation. The district said those changes affected both general-fund revenue and expense but did not change the projected net fund-balance increase for 2026-27.

The Colorado General Assembly’s summary of SB26-023 says the law changed how total program funding is distributed under the School Finance Act for 2026-27. The bill’s fiscal note says it also created a state-funded hold-harmless mechanism for charter schools that lose money under the new approach.

The adopted budget packet reviewed for this story does not describe additional last-minute changes beyond the School Finance Act update and the Centennial Hall adjustment. The record confirms the board adopted the amended budget, but the materials reviewed did not include a separately published minutes record confirming the vote tally.

For families, staff and schools, the immediate effect is that DPS now has authority to spend under its 2026-27 plan. The longer-term question is whether the district will need to slow spending growth, find additional revenue or seek further legislative changes if its forecast holds.