Highlands Ranch Schools: DCSD, Charters and How to Enroll

Douglas County School District runs 45 elementary schools, 9 middle schools, 9 high schools, 6 alternative schools and 20 charter schools across the county, for about 61,000 students. Your address puts you in an attendance zone, and the school for that zone is what DCSD calls your neighborhood or address-assigned school, the school you are assigned to based on your residence address, where no application is needed. Plug the address into the district's School Locator Map and you have your answer before the moving truck is booked. The district organizes Highlands Ranch into two regions: East Highlands Ranch, the Highlands Ranch High School and Rock Canyon feeders, and West Highlands Ranch, the Mountain Vista and ThunderRidge feeders.

Then there is open enrollment. You can request a different DCSD school, including one in another town, on a space-available basis; the district calls that your school of choice, and placement there is not guaranteed. For the 2027-28 school year, Round 1 runs from 8am on Monday, November 2, 2026 to 4pm on Tuesday, December 1, 2026; results arrive at 8am on December 8 in the EngagED parent portal and you accept by 4pm on December 15. Round 2 runs from 8am on Friday, January 22, 2027 to 4pm on Monday, August 2, 2027 and is first come, first served, with Round 1 waitlists ahead of it. Round 1 applicants are prioritized by grade level under district policy, and those not placed go on an annual prioritized list that carries priority over Round 2.

Highlands Ranch High School opened in 1987 as the community's first, ThunderRidge in 1996 together with Ranch View Middle (HRCA's timeline lists them as a combined campus), Mountain Vista in 2001 and Rock Canyon in 2003. Rock Canyon's address on McArthur Ranch Road is listed by the district as Littleton 80124 and by the school as Highlands Ranch; the mailing city is a quirk of the postal map, not the attendance zone. STEM School Highlands Ranch, a charter, also runs a high school (see below).

Three names are brand new this year. Golden Ridge Elementary (1305 Timbervale Trail) is the consolidation of Saddle Ranch and Eldorado; Mountain Peak Elementary (10200 Piedmont Drive) combines Heritage and Summit View; Silver Spruce Elementary (6585 Collegiate Drive) combines Acres Green and Fox Creek. If a listing or an older map still shows one of the six old names, this is why. The district lists Arrowwood, Bear Canyon, Coyote Creek, Sand Creek, Stone Mountain and Wildcat Mountain with Littleton or Lone Tree mailing addresses; they are the Highlands Ranch-area schools all the same.

Where the district page does not print a grade span, we have not guessed one; the school's own site has it, along with its lottery dates. The district also lists CloverLeaf Enrichment School (3350 Summit View Parkway, 720-271-6804) among its alternative programs here. The private option most people ask about is Valor Christian High School at 3775 Grace Boulevard (303-471-3000), which HRCA's timeline says opened in 2007.

DCSD bus service is for students at their assigned neighborhood school; the district's FAQ says transportation is not available to students who are open enrolled. Rides are $1 each way per student under board policy, billed quarterly to the student's MySchoolBucks account, with waivers for students with a transportation IEP and families on the Free and Reduced program. For 2026-27 the district says the annual bus pass is not available because of rolling route cancellations, so plan on the per-ride charge. Passes are requested at engaged.dcsdk12.org under Manage Transportation.