Colorado BOCES Association · October 2026
Colorado’s BOCES: five years of students with IEPs
Each row is a BOCES that serves as its region’s special education administrative unit, counting students with IEPs ages 3 to 21. Find yours, then ask the question this table can’t answer: who is carrying that load, and how many hours do they have left?
- 106,884 to 121,001Students with IEPs across all of Colorado’s special education administrative units, 2020-21 to 2024-25: up 14,117, or 13%.
| BOCES | 2020-21 § | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | Five-year change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Sky BOCES | 224 | 223 | 219 | 216 | 211 | −13 (−6%) |
| Centennial BOCES | 1,043 | 1,135 | 1,145 | 1,140 | 1,059 | +16 (+2%) |
| Colorado River BOCES | 647 | 696 | 736 | 773 | 810 | +163 (+25%) |
| East Central BOCES | 1,331 | 1,504 | 1,617 | 1,862 | 2,000 | +669 (+50%) |
| Education reEnvisioned BOCES | 595 | 531 | 559 | 603 | 716 | +121 (+20%) |
| Mountain BOCES | 530 | 532 | 549 | 560 | 562 | +32 (+6%) |
| Northeast BOCES | 771 | 778 | 786 | 810 | 795 | +24 (+3%) |
| Northwest BOCES † | 666 | 693 | 713 | 751 | 371 | Not comparable |
| Pikes Peak BOCES | 589 | 631 | 677 | 703 | 712 | +123 (+21%) |
| Rio Blanco BOCES | 177 | 175 | 179 | 189 | 177 | 0 (0%) |
| San Juan BOCES | 1,018 | 1,084 | 1,117 | 1,139 | 1,124 | +106 (+10%) |
| San Luis Valley BOCES | 796 | 831 | 902 | 890 | 990 | +194 (+24%) |
| Santa Fe Trail BOCES ‡ | 769 | 578 | 602 | 637 | 651 | −118 (−15%) |
| South Central BOCES | 567 | 599 | 623 | 649 | 628 | +61 (+11%) |
| Southeastern BOCES | 426 | 471 | 463 | 497 | 499 | +73 (+17%) |
| Uncompahgre BOCES | 229 | 228 | 223 | 225 | 225 | −4 (−2%) |
| Ute Pass BOCES | 370 | 347 | 378 | 381 | 386 | +16 (+4%) |
† In 2024-25, Steamboat Springs became its own administrative unit and reported 379 students with IEPs, so Northwest BOCES's 2024-25 count is not comparable to earlier years.
‡ Santa Fe Trail BOCES's count fell by 191 between 2020-21 and 2021-22. The federal file does not say why.
§ 2020-21 counts were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statewide figures add every unit’s reported count and leave out counts the source suppressed for privacy (2 units in 2020-21, 1 in 2021-22 and 2022-23). Percentages are rounded to whole numbers.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, IDEA Section 618 Part B child count and educational environments data, LEA level, school years 2020-21 to 2024-25 (data.ed.gov). Compiled by the PULSE Special Education Observatory, Oct 6, 2026.
See the workload behind the numbers
PULSE measures the time students’ IEPs require of each provider against the hours in their contract. Meetings, evaluations and travel come on top of that, so anyone over 100% is already past their week.