New adjustments to how Colorado funds education include sweeping changes to its homeschool enrichment programs, halting some from starting and forcing some to close. A prominent local authorizer of these programs may also have to end, following a series of developments that led to the changes.

Among the changes to this year’s School Finance Act passed by the state legislature are that such homeschool programs can’t fund activities that exceed what a public school can provide, and that school districts, charter schools and boards of cooperative services (BOCES) can only operate these types of programs within their district boundaries.

As a result, multiple programs are either shutting down or weighing their future. Ken Witt, the executive director of the Education ReEnvisioned BOCES (ERBOCES) that authorizes many homeschool enrichment programs, said that “very few” would be opening this fall and that “dozens” can’t continue because of the new legislation.

“And the families that were anticipating these programs, they’re going to be deprived because of recent events,” he said.

The new state requirements are largely in response to a growing number of programs operated by private contractors at locations across Colorado and utilized by private school students.

Additionally, the services provided by these new programs include activities that, historically, aren’t covered by local schools. These have included lacrosse and ice hockey classes and costly field trips and ski passes for experiential learning.

A January presentation to the Colorado Board of Education estimated that funding for homeschool enrichment programs cost approximately $100 million for the 2025-26 school year.

Rep. Emily Sirota, D-Denver, one of the prime sponsors for this year’s School Finance Act, said that discussions to rein in homeschool enrichment funding began in the Joint Budget Committee during this year’s session when considering options to close a $1.2 billion budget gap.

“And we proceeded to get an outpouring of emails from these programs and it was really eye-opening,” she said.

“Program runners said they wouldn’t be able to offer their Jiu-Jitsu classes if they lost their funding, so that’s when we started to dig in more about ‘What are these programs, who is receiving them and how are they being paid for?’”

What is a homeschool enrichment program?

Homeschool enrichment programs are public programs to supplement homeschooled students’ education with part-time resources and activities that would otherwise be inaccessible. School districts, charter schools and BOCES can authorize these programs and facilitate the public funding they receive, while the individual operators determine the coursework and content.

The 1994 Public School Finance Act established that homeschooled and private school students in public schools part-time are eligible both to be counted by the state and to account for education funding.

The state board of education then determined that 90 hours of scheduled instructional time per semester was required for part-time programs and 360 hours for full-time. Accordingly, half-time students account for half the amount of funding that full-time students account for.

The ERBOCES, based in Monument, has provided supplemental education to partnering schools, districts and families since its founding in 2013 with School District 49 and Yuma District 1. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of families choosing to homeschool proliferated and the BOCES began to offer more enrichment services.

During a Jun. 11 board of education meeting, D-49 Board President Marie LaVere-Wright said that this partnership has benefited the district by providing consistent education to relocating military families via online schools and ERBOCES supervising various programs, rather than their staff.

She added that the previous homeschooling laws and rules were likely approved with the belief that these programs wouldn’t eventually become what they are now.

“Homeschool enrichment law was incredibly broad and incredibly vague,” she said. “And that broadness and vagueness meant that if you were offering something as enrichment, it was valid.”

What changed?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic reinvigorated interest and participation in homeschooling, new types of enrichment programs have opened and expanded what students can access.

Over the past school year, ERBOCES approved applications for more than 20 new enrichment programs to add to their portfolio. Witt declined to specify how many programs it currently had agreements with.

Among them were Colorado Agribusiness and Equine Sciences Academy, Alpine International Preparatory Academy, which specialized in various outdoor experiential learning, Renaissance Innovation Academy, a project-based school with an arts focus, and Front Range Construction Academy, which offered career-exploration education in the construction industry.

All have since posted notices on their respective websites that they were discontinuing their programs, with three of them stating in a near-identical update that it was “Due to continued changes within Colorado’s part time enrichment programming landscape.”

Sirota said that ERBOCES’ programs were mentioned regarding recent enrichment growth and that they were often serving students “well beyond their locale” with fewer guardrails when compared to those operated by local school districts.

She added that enrichment programs, overall, have been projected to increase their costs to as much as $150-200 million in upcoming years. Given the myriad of budget challenges at the state level and what public education has historically funded, it was ultimately decided that all publicly funded enrichment programs should mirror these offerings.

Witt pushed back against the notion that these programs were using public dollars to fund private programs, calling it “nonsense,” and alleged that there are some at the state level that “prefer the status quo as the only public option” for education.

Sirota agreed that homeschooled students are entitled to enrichment, but said that access to more expensive programming could create equity problems in both public and private education.

“I think if you asked the average Coloradan if they think the state should be paying for things they typically pay for out of pocket, most of them would say, ‘Absolutely not,’” she said.

Going forward, families will have to submit a notice of intent to homeschool to their local public school district to participate in a state-funded program. Students attending private schools will also be ineligible to enroll in public school or a public homeschool program part-time.

The fiscal note for this year’s School Finance Act projected that the adjustments to homeschool funding will save the state about $21 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year and about $30 million the following year, though these numbers are preliminary estimates and subject to change.

One of the longer-running homeschool enrichment programs has already begun its adjustments to the new state requirements. Mark Hyatt, founder of Falcon Aerolab in Colorado Springs, said that they’re “not going away, but definitely getting affected” by the changes.

The program has offered aerospace and aviation education to Colorado students both in and outside Colorado, to school districts and homeschooled students for the past ten years. Last month, the program was approved for one of many future contracts with Lewis-Palmer District 38’s Homeschool Enrichment Academy in Monument.

Hyatt explained that the program will repeat this process with other local school districts to replace ERBOCES as its authorizer. Hoping to continue to serve students throughout the state, he said that it will be able to do so for the upcoming school year as parameters are finalized on the state level and that it has also applied for a statewide waiver.

While their work to get re-authorized will continue in the coming months, Hyatt said he approved of the changes and that it will provide “much more structured and regulatory framework with additional accountability, more detailed enrollment and state oversight” that was previously lacking.

“We’re not going to give up on serving our kids and our families here,” he said.

What’s next for ERBOCES?

Along with many of its homeschool enrichment programs, the future of ERBOCES itself is uncertain.

The heightened scrutiny this year has led to its current partners reconsidering their future with it. During their June meeting, D-49’s board had a lengthy discussion about continuing its partnership, with some members citing recent controversies and a lack of trust in the BOCES’ current leadership and others defending what its added to the district over the years.

The state department of education that reported over 13,500 students were enrolled through ERBOCES during the 2025-26 school year.

The D-49 board would agree to give it a year to adjust to the new requirements, while continuing to provide existing programs.

“I’m really proud that we are continuing our relationship with ERBOCES so that we can offer parents the best choice for their child,” D-49 and ERBOCES board member Lori Thompson told The Gazette after the meeting.

It remains to be seen if the BOCES itself can continue, however.

In the days leading up to the meeting, Elizabeth School District’s board of education voted to end its membership with ERBOCES, over what it believed was an insufficient benefit to the district. Since then, a spokesperson for Pikes Peak State College confirmed that the school is also resigning its membership in ERBOCES, effective Aug. 15, telling The Gazette that they “do not have anything further to add,” regarding this decision.

As of this writing, this leaves D-49 as the only member of the BOCES, which requires at least two members to provide shared services.

Witt, aware of this, said that he’s “not terribly worried” and that different districts have come and gone over the years for various reasons that include “political and administrative changes.” He declined to name any school districts potentially interested in becoming members, not wanting to speak for any elected boards or any future decision.

As to whether ERBOCES may have to discontinue, he said: “It’s not clear on how that’s handled.”