Houston ISD Anticipates Up to 6,800 Student Drop for Next School Year

Houston Independent School District will compensate for up to 10 percent of a school's expected financial shortfall resulting from decreases in student numbers and daily attendance rates.

This 10%-return mechanism comes after last academic year’s 12% limit on budget cuts aimed at supporting educational institutions. The state's biggest school district is carefully navigating its financial forecasts amid falling student numbers and expectations of increased per-pupil funding from the government.

Superintendent Mike Miles announced on Wednesday that the district anticipates a decrease of around 6,800 students. This projection is lower than the previously estimated 8,000-student decline from February, according to James Terry, the HISD Chief of Finance and Business Services, due to an uptick in pre-kindergarten enrollments.

The district intends to finalize budgets in October once the state has received the enrollment snapshot.

"Miles provided an illustration where they make a solid estimate, then come to a middle ground with the schools, providing funds upfront... For instance, let’s assume the forecast predicts losing around one hundred students,” he explained. “We might adjust this down to fifty initially. But if the actual student loss turns out to be a hundred, we'll reconcile this discrepancy later in October.”

BUDGET: HISD plans to increase the per-student funding somewhat for campuses not under the New Education System.

Educational institutions will present their budget plans on April 28.

Miles mentioned that they are collaborating with several schools facing financial difficulties, often barely managing to cover expenses. The finance team is assisting these institutions, as is the chief of schools office.

He restated the district's pledge to keep schools open for the upcoming year.

For schools in Miles' New Education System , implementing reforms, the district is currently aligning staff sizes with student enrollment figures.

STATE EXAMS: HISD encounters opposition due to STAAR exams being administered to students who chose not to take them.

The Central Office personnel will see a reduction of approximately 100 jobs.

As the number of students in the district decreases, the administration plans to reduce additional central office roles and outsourced services. Nearly every department will be making reductions to save approximately $30 million, according to Miles.

HISD intends to cut approximately 400 jobs but introduce about 300 new ones, leading to a reduction of roughly 100 positions based on the preliminary figures presented on Wednesday. The largest overall adjustment seems to be within the Public Affairs and Communications division, followed closely by changes in the Chief of Schools department.

According to Miles, the head of schools will forfeit $9.8 million.

The reason being, even though last year we eliminated 800 teaching roles due to decreasing student numbers and lack of cuts during well-funded periods, we're still able to reduce personnel from the chief of schools' central office," he explained, noting that staff members working at the department level would face layoffs as well, all falling under the purview of the chief of schools.

ENROLLMENT: HISD plans to discuss potentially shutting down an unspecified number of schools during the 2026-27 academic year because of decreasing student numbers.

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