Houston ISD kicked off another school year at more than 200 campuses, but the state's largest school district returned to class facing a long list of changes and questions about what comes next. Among the biggest challenges is declining enrollment, with the district expecting a further loss and 12 schools not reopening this year, a contraction that has reshaped where and how many students will learn.
The new year also brings the arrival of the state's school voucher program, which begins this year and adds a new dimension to the choices families weigh. Alongside it, the district is expanding a signature initiative with nine new NES elementary schools, a model that gives campuses more resources but also less autonomy, part of the reshaping of how the district runs its schools.
Perhaps the most contentious change is in the classroom itself. This is the first year of the Blue Bonnet curriculum, which supporters say strengthens lessons in history and reading, but which critics have questioned over some of its material, including Bible references and a requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted on classroom walls.
That controversy has left some educators uneasy about their role. Jackie Anderson, who leads a group of teachers, said teachers go into the profession to teach out of love and compassion rather than for money, and warned that when they are not allowed to do that it creates a very stressful situation, leaving them feeling they are not doing the service to students they signed up for when they became teachers.
The district has also made sweeping changes to how it serves some of its most vulnerable students. It overhauled special education, reassigning thousands of students in self-contained classrooms to new schools, a significant restructuring that will change the daily experience for those children and their families as the year begins.
Two further changes touch on basic needs and safety. HISD was forced to cut automatic free lunch at 33 schools because of federal changes to the SNAP program, meaning families must now apply to see if they qualify rather than receiving it automatically. At the same time, for the first time the district is using a smart tag system on its school buses, which has students scan a badge every time they get on or off and includes alerts if a child gets off at the wrong stop.