{"id":996721,"date":"2026-08-12T20:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/996721\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T20:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:33:20","slug":"superintendent-immigration-policies-impact-dallas-school-enrollment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/996721\/","title":{"rendered":"Superintendent: immigration policies impact Dallas school enrollment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas ISD\u2019s enrollment has slipped, and immigration policies may have had a hand in it, Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said as the district\u00a0began the new school year<\/a> Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Certainly, some policies regarding immigration have had an impact,” Elizalde said at a news conference at Victor H. Hexter Elementary School. “We think this year we’re probably going to level off.”<\/p>\n

Elizalde said this school year\u2019s enrollment figures are not yet available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are prepared to receive as many students as come through our doors,\u201d Elizalde said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s enrollment has been on a downward trajectory<\/a> for the last decade, save a small increase in the 2024-25 school year. Last school year, Dallas ISD had over 134,000 students, down 3% from the previous year. Since 2015, Dallas ISD<\/a> has consistently lost over 1,000 students per year, with a large dip in 2020 due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In January 2025, President Donald Trump repealed<\/a> a Biden-era policy that protected certain spaces \u2014 including schools and churches \u2014 from immigration enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dallas ISD, the second-largest district in the state by enrollment, isn\u2019t the only district seeing fewer students. Enrollment in Fort Worth ISD<\/a> has also dropped significantly in the last decade, and it saw a 4% decrease from 2024 to 2025. Other North Texas school districts, like Richardson ISD and Irving ISD, follow similar trends.<\/p>\n

Other factors that could influence enrollment are the Texas\u2019 new school choice program<\/a>, wherein the state subsidizes private school tuition or homeschooling. Over 2,500 students living in Dallas ISD boundaries and 1,500 students in Fort Worth ISD boundaries will participate in the program<\/a>, though not all of them are necessarily switching from public to private school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Demographic trends, like declining birth rates and fewer children in Texas, could also contribute to lower enrollment in public schools. At the state level, public school enrollment saw a decline of 76,000 students<\/a> in 2025 \u2014 a 1.4% drop \u2014 making it the largest enrollment dip in Texas outside of the pandemic, according to the nonpartisan think tank Texas 2036<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elizalde said Tuesday she doesn\u2019t expect a large change in enrollment this year for her district, but hopes new Dallas ISD initiatives, like its universal pre-K program, will draw in more families.<\/p>\n

Dallas ISD, along with dozens of other area districts, had their first day of school this week. While Fort Worth entered the new school year under state takeove<\/a>r, others, like Dallas and Irving ISD opened new campuses<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab\u2019s journalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas ISD\u2019s enrollment has slipped, and immigration policies may have had a hand in it, Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":996722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,347,1596,50,172152,358,290169,324880,324878,324877,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-996721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-article","tag-dallas","tag-news","tag-news-immigration","tag-texas","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-dallas-isd","tag-tp-ed-lab-school","tag-tp-education-lab","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117084448917436017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/996722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}