Best Public Schools in Zip Code 81328

Zip code 81328 (Mancos, Colorado) is home to three public schools serving grades K-12 within Mancos School District Re-6, with a combined enrollment of 475 students. The district's schools—Mancos Elementary School, Mancos Middle School, and Mancos High School—each serve a distinct role and show notably different conditions in attendance, academics, and economic need.

Mancos Elementary School is the largest school with 217 students and is the healthiest on key indicators: it has the lowest chronic absenteeism at 25.0% (better than the state's 28.4%), the lowest student-teacher ratio at 12.3, and a moderate 37.79% free/reduced lunch rate. Mancos Middle School serves the highest-need population with a 46.55% free/reduced lunch rate but keeps absenteeism at 30.8%, near the state average. Mancos High School is the most concerning: chronic absenteeism is a staggering 62.2%—more than double the state rate—and only 12% of 11th graders are proficient in SAT math versus 32% statewide. Yet the high school also posts a 90.6% graduation rate and a 0.6% dropout rate, both better than state averages.

The most urgent issues are concentrated at the high school level. Math proficiency lags far behind state averages across all grade levels, while reading is comparatively stronger—9th graders exceeded the state average in PSAT9 Reading & Writing at 69% versus 66%. Economic disadvantage does not explain the absenteeism gap, since the middle school has higher poverty but much lower absenteeism than the high school. The district's 37.4% chronic absenteeism rate is driven almost entirely by the high school. For parents, Mancos Elementary School offers the strongest early-grade foundation with small classes and solid attendance, while Mancos High School needs attention around math achievement and attendance, despite its encouraging graduation outcomes.