RootED Annual Report 2019-2020

We’re proud to share our first RootED Annual Report. In fiscal year 2019-2020, our grantees served nearly 24,000 Denver Public School students across 55 schools. These schools and nonprofit organizations championed community-driven change by activating and equipping Denver families to advocate for schools that meet their needs; and they elevated school quality and racial equity in autonomous school leadership, academics, and operations.

Our mission at RootED is to invest in community-driven organizations, schools and strategies that advance racial equity in education—to ensure that all Denver Public Schools students receive a high-quality education that recognizes and values individual and community strengths and cultural difference, enabling students to attain academic achievement, personal growth, and college and career success.

We’re grateful to our partners, funders, staff and board and remain optimistic and committed as ever to an equitable, accountable, responsive Denver Public Schools system where racism is no longer a barrier to excellent student outcomes.

Student with cell phone in class

Cell Phones, Classrooms and Community Voice: What’s Happening in Denver Public Schools

If you are a Denver Public Schools (DPS) parent, educator or community member, you have probably heard the conversations already—at school pickup, in group chats or maybe around your kitchen table. What should schools do about cell phones? And who gets to decide? By July 1, 2026, House Bill 25-1135 requires every Colorado school district to adopt a formal policy that limits the use of smartphones and smartwatches by students during the school day. The goal of the legislation is

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