Over the last five years, more than half of public school districts across the Greater Houston area lost students, with one district seeing a more than 15% decline in enrollment, according to Texas Education Agency data released March 6.
The overview
Community Impact analyzed data from the TEA to learn how many students were enrolled at public school districts for the 2025-26 school year compared to the 2021-22 school year. According to data for 28 Greater Houston-area school districts, the districts with the highest enrollments in 2021-22 and in 2025-26 were Houston ISD, Cy-Fair ISD and Katy ISD.
However, the Greater Houston-area school districts with the most enrollment gains from over the last five school years—from 2021-26—are:
- Lamar CISD with 9,208 students gained
- Katy ISD with 6,927 students gained
- Conroe ISD with 4,996 students gained
During last year’s analysis of enrollments from 2020-25 by Community Impact, Katy ISD led with the most students gained, followed by Lamar CISD and then Conroe ISD, as previously reported.
The school districts with the biggest enrollment losses for 2021-26 are:
From 2020-25, the rankings for the three school districts with the most students lost were the same as 2021-26, as previously reported.
Put in perspective
When looking at enrollment changes as a percentage, some different school districts emerged for the largest student enrollment gains and losses.
The districts with the highest percentage of students gained over the last five years—from 2021-26—are:
From 2020-25, Splendora ISD also had the largest percentage for enrollment growth, followed by Lamar CISD and Tomball ISD, as previously reported. New Caney ISD had the fourth-highest enrollment growth as a percentage of total enrollment for 2020-25.
The districts with the largest percentage of enrollment loss over the last five years—from 2020-25—are:
- Aldine ISD with 15.4% enrollment decline
- Houston ISD with 13.3% enrollment decline
- Pasadena ISD with 10.5% enrollment decline
- Alief ISD with 10.4% enrollment decline
From 2020-25, the rankings for the three schools with the highest percentages of enrollment loss were the same as 2021-26, as previously reported. However, for 2020-25, Alief ISD—which lost 7.5% of students—had a larger percentage point gap between Pasadena ISD—which lost 8.2% of students.
Zooming out
For Region 4, which covers much of the central Greater Houston area, and Region 6—which covers districts between north Houston and Huntsville—student enrollment fell 0.9% and grew 3.8%, respectively, according to TEA data.
Of the 12 Greater Houston-area school districts that saw enrollment growth as a percentage of enrollment, seven are located in the northern portion of the region, according to TEA data.