HOUSTON – Houston ISD announced several changes coming to the way students get to and from school.
The changes were announced in a Youtube video posted by the district Monday.
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HISD’s Chief of Operational Effectiveness, Kari Feinberg, broke down some of the changes.
Bus eligibility
Feinberg reiterated the qualifications for students to be able to ride a district bus.
“Students qualify for bus transportation if they attend their zoned school and they live further than two miles away from that school,” she said. “Students who are at a magnet transfer, maybe they don’t attend their zoned school, they can attend any school across HISD due to that magnet transfer, they also qualify for transportation. That makes HISD a little bit different. We are one of the school systems in the state of Texas and certainly the biggest system in the state of Texas that provides transportation to our magnet students.”
Students who have hazardous routes to school can also qualify for transportation.
One of the big changes the district has committed to for the 2025-2026 school year is reducing ride times for students on busses.
“We’ve set the goal that any student who is transported on a bus to their zoned or neighborhood school will not have a ride time of longer than 50 minutes. Students who are going to one of those magnet schools and maybe on a route that is a little bit further away from their home, our goal is that they are not on the bus for any more than 80 minutes,” Feinberg said.
For the next school year, parents will also be able to make transportation requests directly to the district’s transportation department rather than making the request at a school campus.
METRO partnership
Feinberg said the district will also be opening up the opportunity for high school students to be able to use public transportation, through METRO, to get to and from school instead of a district bus.
“What this means is any high school student who qualifies for transportation, so you have to be transportation eligible, will have the choice between either a METRO pass that will allow them to go to and from school using METRO, or a HISD routed bus, the way that they are usually used to going to school,” she said.
Feinberg said a lot of students are already opting out of using district transportation and are using METRO instead.
“That’s something that if it works for the family and works for the student we want to continue promoting with a more formal partnership with METRO and we’ll be paying for those METRO passes for students, for high school students 9-12,” Feinberg said.
When will families learn more?
Feinberg said HISD families will receive more specific communications about the changes over the next few weeks.
During the week of May 5, families will receive a survey where they can make initial transportation requests for the 2025-2026 school year.