Cowboy State Education Coverage, Driven by Data
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Wyoming, grounded in Wyoming Department of Education data.
Sweetwater #1 has lost 22.1% of enrollment since its 2016 peak of 5,749 students, the steepest decline among Wyoming's mid-size and large districts.
Wyoming was among the first states to reopen schools, yet only 6 of 48 districts have returned to pre-COVID enrollment. The post-pandemic decline has been 2.7 times larger than the initial COVID drop.
Natrona County School District #1 lost 443 students in 2025-26, capping three straight years of accelerating decline that has erased 25 years of growth.
Wyoming enrolled 6,064 kindergartners in 2025-26 — 25 percent below the 2014 peak — while Grade 12 sits near an all-time high. The grade pipeline tells the next decade's story.
Laramie County School District #1, Wyoming's largest, has lost 1,402 students since 2020 and plans to close 8 elementary schools through 2035. Parents have sued to stop it.
Seventeen of Wyoming's 51 districts — 33 percent — are at their lowest enrollment in the 26-year data record, and the two largest are within striking distance.
Glendo High School enrolled one student in 2025-26. One of 19 Wyoming schools with fewer than 10, part of a rural system in the least populated state.
Wyoming lost 2,483 students in 2025-26, the largest single-year decline in the state's 26-year enrollment record, surpassing even the COVID drop.
WDE releases 2025-26 enrollment data showing Wyoming lost 2,483 students, the largest single-year decline in 26 years of records.