State Appointed Superintendent Mike Miles visits Whidby Elementary on the first day of the 2026-2027 school year. August 10, 2026.
In June, officials projected approximately 4,000 students would leave the district and crafted their budget to withstand the roughly $50 million dollars it would lose in state funding tied to student enrollment.
However, at a Texas Senate Education hearing Tuesday, state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles said the number of students who left was closer to 10,000. Enrollment in the district has been steadily declining for years. This is not the first time the district's projections have fallen short of reality. For the 2024-2025 school year, the district's projections were short by roughly 1,200 students when the district lost nearly 8,000.
Miles insisted that despite the enrollment losses, his reforms and the district's model were financially stable.
"You just have to be very fiscally responsible, and you cannot pay for all things," Miles told lawmakers. "You cannot have all things. You have to pay for your leverage points."
Last year the district cut hundreds of positions in its central office and closed or consolidated 12 schools to help offset the losses. In September, district administrators began what they described as an annual "campus leveling" process directing some schools to cut staff, reassign employees and ask school leaders to slash spending in response to student losses.
Education experts warned enrollment declines could be exacerbated this year by the state's new voucher program, which gives families the opportunity to leave public schools and take state education funding to private schools. A report released last week from the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency said more than a 1,200 Houston ISD students used vouchers to leave the district for private school or homeschooling options.
Additionally, a report from the University of Houston released in January showed the district was experiencing steeper enrollment decline after the start of the takeover. The largest enrollment losses were in New Education System (NES) campuses which have less autonomy and agency than other schools in the district.
Miles pushed back on the notion enrollment losses could be attributed to the current Texas Education Agency takeover of the district.
"If you look in the Greater Houston area — Pasadena, Alief, Aldine — all had similar enrollment declines, percentage-wise obviously were the largest, last year as HISD and they didn’t have interventions," Miles said. "We have other experts in the area that have talked about — low birth rate, immigration, any number of things — and I think that’s the reason for the enrollment decline in HISD."
At the education committee hearing, Miles also defended the district's sweeping changes to special education. In May the district announced it would restructure special education services and centralize the programs to certain "hub" schools. The reforms required moving hundreds of students who utilize the special education programs to new schools with very little notice.
Documents of the proposed changes leaked before the district formally announced the changes or communicated it to families directly. The backlash from many parents in the district was intense. Within days of the official announcement, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights opened a federal investigation into Houston ISD's changes to special education services. The investigation remains ongoing.
"The kids are thriving much better, and when you change that system — any sort of system — you’re going to get some folks who are not happy about that," Miles told lawmakers. "The leak document didn’t help."
RELATED: Houston ISD's special education changes violate student rights, TEA says in letter
The TEA also launched their own investigation into the changes and in early July found the district violated provisions of the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) when it moved certain specialized programs to central locations. The state required Houston ISD to review each student’s IEP for “potential harmful effects of any proposed placement or service delivery change” and ensure the district holds meetings with families to review and revise IEPs before students are moved to a new campus.
A report from Houston ISD verifying the corrections have been made is due this week on Oct. 9. Education Commissioner Mike Morath told reporters in August there was still work left to be done regarding special education, but said he anticipated it would all be resolved "relatively soon."
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