This month, HISD Leadership reportedly told schools to turn away students enrolling for the remainder of the school year. This is against state law and violates federal protections if any of the affected students are homeless.
Education is a right for students between the ages of 5 and 21 in Texas.
Texas Education Code §25.001 is explained clearly on page 49 of the TEA Student Attendance Manual. “Your district must serve students in regular education in addition to in other programs, such as special education, if the students are eligible and all documentation is on file. Your district cannot refuse to serve a student who is entitled to enroll. For example, say a student enters a hospital for treatment. If the hospital is located within your school district, your district must immediately serve this student…”
Given Superintendent Mike Miles’s pattern of reshaping enrollment, testing access, and course pathways that affect who is counted in STAAR results, this raises concerns that the decision may again be aimed at manipulating accountability ratings rather than serving students who enroll late in the school year.
In a democracy, education is a fundamental right. File a grievance.
This semester, Miles has accelerated the rollout of one harmful policy after another, with little regard for the disruption caused to students, families, and neighborhood schools.
In February, Miles gave parents just two weeks’ notice that twelve schools would be closed, all in under-resourced Black or Brown neighborhoods, some where the school is the only public building in the neighborhood.
He then announced expanding NES to nine more schools and launching nine “Future2” schools using AI-driven curriculum and grading, with plans to expand harmfully to 100 schools within three years.
In mid-April, reports and documents revealed that Miles had been receiving quarterly payments of $30,000 through a consulting agreement with Third Future School, the charter network he founded in Colorado.
This month, Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles upended the lives of up to 5,000 Special Education students and their families by announcing they will be moved from their current schools to hub campuses next August—a major change revealed only through leaked documents and one that raises serious concerns about compliance with federal law. Had the documents not surfaced, the information may not have been disclosed until summer.
Like so much else, the move appears to be a shell game designed to manipulate STAAR outcomes at the expense of student learning. Here is how you can fight this.
Also this month, Kristen Hole announced Kinder Bridge, a program that would hold children back after kindergarten based on test scores, not individual needs. Under the takeover, kindergarten has already become more rigid, punitive, and test-driven. Now HISD is proposing to retain five-year-olds if they miss a benchmark, despite research showing mass retention does not produce lasting gains and may actually harm long term student success.
File a grievance against a system increasingly defined by secrecy, disruption, and decisions that put accountability metrics ahead of students. Send it to [email protected].
Even if nothing changes immediately, it builds the record—and pressure. Along with our vote in November, that’s how we win.
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