Chaffee County High School

BUENA VISTA · CO · Buena Vista School District No. R-31 · Public · K-12 combined

📄 Shareable scorecard →

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 1 AP courses offered — Limited
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 18% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 11% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 24% (Bottom 4% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

💡

How Chaffee County High School compares for families

What families should know about Chaffee County High School.

  • LocallyCO students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Horizons Exploratory Academy, Lake George Charter School, Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Limited — narrow advanced curriculum

Bottom 18% of US high schools

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
1
Subject breadth not reported
Other rigor signals
✅ Gifted/talented program

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Bottom 11% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
7
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
46.7
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

Bottom 4% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
24%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
14
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
25.0%
Elevated — a quarter or more of teachers are in years 1-2. Often correlates with school instability.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
0.0%
Strong attendance culture among teachers.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

73.3%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

🏛️ Your state's public flagship

University of Colorado Boulder

83%
admit rate
$15,666
in-state tuition/yr · $44,918 out-of-state
1230–1420
SAT 25–75 · ACT 28–33

The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $25,346/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.

See the full University of Colorado Boulder profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
86.7%
Well above the national average (~16%). At this level, chronic absence becomes a leading driver of enrollment loss as families rotate to other schools.
Students absent 15+ days
13
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
15:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
1.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
4
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -18.1%/year, projecting from 2024's 15 students:

2025
12
2027
8
2029
6

A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Most similar nearby high schools

The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Horizons Exploratory Academy
SALIDA
Public 22.9 32
Lake George Charter School
LAKE GEORGE
Public · charter 42.4 19
Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center
COLORADO SPRINGS
Public 68.5 22
Cloud City High School
LEADVILLE
Public 29.3 35
Mountain Valley School
SAGUACHE
Public 52.5 27
Crestone Charter School
CRESTONE
Public · charter 63.3 29
Moffat Prek-12 School
MOFFAT
Public 59.6 30
Spring Creek Youth Services Center
COLORADO SPRINGS
Public 72.8

For Parents

Researching colleges for your kid at Chaffee County High School?

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For School Admins looking at enrollment trends: request an Enrollment Trend Audit →