Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify that not all students transferred during the 2025-26 school year.
Thousands of students who live in the Greater Houston area public school boundaries are attending another district or a charter school during the 2025-26 school year, with Houston, Alief and Fort Bend ISDs seeing the highest numbers, according to Texas Education Agency data released March 5.
The overview
Community Impact reviewed TEA data from the 2025-26 school year to determine the number of students departing public school districts and where they were transferring.
TEA’s transfer numbers show the annual number of students who live within a district’s boundaries but attend school in another district or a charter school, a TEA spokesperson said via a March 25 email.
However, the totals do not account for students who moved to another residence outside of the district’s boundaries, the spokesperson said.
The data from 28 Greater Houston school districts shows the ones with the highest transfer numbers were:
- Houston ISD with 60,430 net transfers out
- Alief ISD with 10,629 net transfers out
- Fort Bend ISD with 9,197 net transfers out
- Cypress-Fairbanks ISD with 7,075 net transfers out
- Aldine ISD with 6,620 net transfers out
Net transfers account for students transferring into and out of a school district.
The data also shows some school districts saw a net increase in enrollment from transfers in 2025-26, including:
- Deer Park ISD
- Friendswood ISD
- Galena Park ISD
- Montgomery ISD
Zooming outWhen looking at the net transfer numbers as a portion of total student enrollment, a few different leaders emerged for top transfers-out, but Houston ISD and Alief ISD remained at the top of the list. Based on reporting from Community Impact last year, Houston ISD shows a 3.47% increase in net student transfers.
According to TEA data, the school districts with the highest percentages for net student transfers as a portion of total enrollment for 2025-26 were:
- Houston ISD with 36% of students transferring out
- Alief ISD with 28% of students transferring out
- Spring ISD with 20% of students transferring out
- La Porte ISD with 16% of students transferring out
- Aldine ISD with 13% of students transferring out
- Fort Bend and Pasadena ISDs with 12% of students transferring out
