TEXAS — Texas public schools enrolled more than 14,200 fewer students classified as immigrants during the 2025-26 school year, a 7% decline that was especially sharp in several large urban districts, according to state data examined by The Texas Tribune.
Houston Independent School District recorded a 22% one-year drop in its immigrant-student population—more than three times the statewide rate. Austin, Frisco, Fort Worth and Katy school districts also reported overall enrollment losses and immigrant-student declines exceeding the state average.
The figures come from the Texas Education Agency’s 2025-26 enrollment report, which counted 179,423 students in the immigrant category. That classification does not describe every foreign-born or undocumented child in Texas schools.
For state reporting purposes, an immigrant student is between ages 3 and 21, was born outside the United States, Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia, and has attended a U.S. school for no more than three full academic years. Citizenship is not a factor, and schools do not ask children to disclose immigration or citizenship status. A student who has lived in Texas for several years may therefore be excluded from the count.
Houston feels the decline
HISD’s decrease has already affected services for newly arrived students. The district closed Las Americas Newcomer School during the 2025-26 year, citing low enrollment. The alternative campus had served students who recently arrived in the United States. HISD did not respond to the Tribune’s request for comment on the latest data.
The decline matters beyond the number of empty seats. Texas finances public schools largely through attendance-based funding, so falling enrollment can reduce revenue for districts already facing deficits, campus consolidations and staffing cuts.
Statewide public-school enrollment fell by 76,613 students, or 1.4%, between 2024-25 and 2025-26, leaving 5,467,642 students enrolled. The TEA report says this was only the second annual decline since the state began collecting enrollment through its current data system. The first occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hispanic enrollment fell by 61,781 students, a 2.1% decrease, while African American enrollment declined by 2,920 students, or 0.4%. Texas still reported that 53.1% of public-school students were Hispanic and 12.9% were African American.
Enforcement fears and competing explanations
The state report documents who was enrolled but does not identify a single cause for the decline. Lower birth rates, families moving, school-choice options and other demographic shifts can all affect attendance. The timing, however, overlaps with stepped-up federal immigration enforcement and the removal of previous restrictions on enforcement activity near schools.
Educators and immigrant-family advocates told the Tribune that some parents are afraid to send children to school, some families have left the country, and some older students have withdrawn to work after a parent was detained. Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said the district is seeing students leave areas where enforcement activity has occurred.
The Department of Homeland Security disputed claims that schools are being targeted. The agency said Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not target schools and that people who are in the country legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.
Federal law remains clear on access to education. Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe, public schools must provide a free K-12 education regardless of a child’s immigration status.
Not every large district followed the statewide pattern. Northside ISD in San Antonio reported a 9% increase in immigrant students, which district officials attributed partly to Afghan resettlement, migration from Venezuela and expanded English-language and newcomer services.
The contrasting results show that statewide totals reflect both national immigration policy and local conditions. But for Houston and other major Texas districts, the immediate consequences are already visible: fewer students, reduced funding and growing concern that fear is keeping children from classrooms where they are legally entitled to learn.
