School Choice Guidelines

The North East ISD complies with Texas Education Code Chapter 25, Admission, Transfer, and Attendance and Chapter 26, Parental Rights and Responsibilities. 

Under School Choice, parents/guardians can request their child be transferred to another school within the district other than the one serving their residence. Annually, the Office of Performance and Planning will establish the number of available seats for each school/grade level for all schools based on the projected enrollment, the core and classroom capacity, District and state mandated staffing ratios, the growth rate for each school, and other critical factors that may arise, such as construction or above average growth potential. Each school's attendance area residents will always be given enrollment priority.

For current North East ISD students, School Choice online applications will be available for submission beginning at 7:20 a.m. on the first school business day of December and ending at the close of school business on the last Friday of July. No exceptions will be made if applications are not submitted within this established timeline. Prior to submitting an application, please verify that the email listed in the Family Access Center is updated and accurate. The application submitted during this time will be for the following school year. All applications submitted will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis.  Each application submitted will be notated with the date and time it was electronically received. The online application process will be closed after the established window.  Applications are only accepted for students who will be entering into kindergarten through twelfth grade in the upcoming school year.

For any new student enrolling in the North East ISD for kindergarten through twelfth grade, the window for School Choice will be open for five (5) school business days from the student’s verified enrollment date. Applications received after the closure of this established window will not be processed for the current school year. These applications will be voided and a new application must be submitted during the regular School Choice window (December through the last Friday of July) for consideration for the following school year. A new student is defined as any student enrolling in North East ISD for the first time, a student who either did not have a residence in North East ISD during the School Choice established window, a student who is the first in his/her family to register to attend a North East ISD school, or any student returning to North East ISD after being out of the District for more than 1 (one) full year but who was not out of the District for disciplinary purposes or to avoid a disciplinary assignment.

Parents/guardians may submit only one (1) School Choice application per child with only one (1) school of choice requested on the application. A separate application is required for each student. No provisions are made for siblings. North East ISD magnet schools and/or dual language programs cannot be requested through School Choice and determination of eligibility for any magnet school and/or dual language program is made independently of the School Choice process.  Questions regarding magnet programs should be directed to the department of Learning Support Services and dual language eligibility should be referred to the department of Curriculum and Instruction. 

All online applications submitted will be processed by the Office of Pupil Personnel Services. Beginning in May, parents/guardians of current North East ISD students will receive an official email notification and text message regarding the status of the School Choice request. The Office of Pupil Personnel Services assumes no responsibility to verify email delivery. Notifications of application status will be exclusively electronic. All online applications submitted, to include newly enrolled students, will be processed in the order they are electronically received with an official email status notification and text message to follow. The District assumes no responsibility for any user and/or district-related technical outages resulting from the submission of an online application.

School Choice is available for students’ who qualify to receive special education services. The Special Education Department will be consulted when considering applications for School Choice to ensure that the school requested by the student’s parent/guardian has the capacity to provide the specialized services contained in the student’s individualized education plan (IEP). The receiving campus must have the existing capacity to deliver the student’s IEP.

Students enrolled under the School Choice option must reside with their parent(s)/guardian(s) in North East ISD. If your School Choice application was granted, you must accept your child’s seat by providing the school of choice your current proof of residency on or before the last Friday of July. No exceptions will be made if all documents of residency have not been provided to the approved school of choice by the established timeline. Please contact the approved school of choice campus for all required documents needed for enrollment.

Parents/guardians may terminate their child’s School Choice enrollment at any time by communicating their intention to withdraw their child in writing to the Principal of the school of choice campus.  The parents/guardians will not need to reapply in the subsequent school year(s) for the grade(s) housed on that campus if the student is approved for School Choice enrollment for the requested school of choice.  However, if the student is moving from elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school, a new School Choice application is required.

Any granted School Choice application will be automatically terminated upon withdrawal from the granted school of choice campus.

Students may have the School Choice transfer revoked and/or blocked by the Principal of the school of choice campus if students do not follow the rules and regulations of the requested school. The following reasons are justification for a School Choice transfer to be revoked and/or blocked:

• One or more failing grades for the semester;
• A major violation or a persistent violation of the Student Code of Conduct;
• Poor attendance for the semester; or
• Failure of parent/guardian and/or student to comply with school policies and procedures, to include causing disruptions to the day-to-day operations of the school.

Transportation will not be provided and is the responsibility of the parents/guardians for students on School Choice transfers.

For University Interscholastic League (UIL) purposes, students must meet all UIL criteria. Students approved for any intra-district transfer should contact the Executive Director of Athletics to determine the implications and/or required forms needing to be completed prior to being able to participate in any UIL event.

FAQs regarding School Choice can be found at http://www.neisd.net/schoolchoice.