HOUSTON, Texas – Earlier this year, Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research collaborated with the Houston Independent School District to help strengthen its Sunrise Centers.
These neighborhood-based hubs provide noninstructional support for students and families, from food and school supplies to mental health care and job training.
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The district’s Sunrise Centers were launched in the 2023-24 school year, and the Kinder Institute’s collaboration examined their first year of operation, offering recommendations to enhance the impact on students and families.
In May, it became clear that the district—where 80% of students are economically disadvantaged—was transitioning from its Wraparound Services Department, which provided food, clothing, supplies, hygiene items to the Sunrise Centers.
The district emphasized that wraparound services were not going away but are now managed by campus and district teams, including nurses, office managers, counselors, at-risk coordinators, and parent liaisons.
When HISD Superintendent Mike Miles took charge, he reduced the wraparound department by more than 200 staff members and cut about $14 million from its budget.
When these changes were first reported, they raised questions and concerns.
Specifically, the concerns regarded the district’s truancy issue. Since the beginning of the year, KPRC 2 Investigates has been tracking the issue of truancy in Texas.
We previously reported that over one million children were considered truant in Texas during the last four school years. During this year’s legislative session, several bills were filed in the Texas House and Senate aimed at addressing this problem.
After reviewing truancy-related data submitted to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the past four school years, we found that HISD reported zero prevention measures and zero truancy complaints filed against parents or legal guardians. Yet, during the same timeframe, the district reported tens of thousands of students being truant each year.
State law requires school districts to notify parents or guardians when a student has three or more unexcused absences in a month and to implement truancy prevention measures.
With changes happening to the district’s wraparound services, originally designed to support students who were chronically absent or truant, we wanted to learn more about the Sunrise Centers and their role, if any, in helping students stay in and attend school.
There are currently eight Sunrise Centers located throughout the Houston area. To help the district decide where to establish these campuses, the Kinder Institute said it mapped regions with high student need and good accessibility.
Researchers found that all eight Sunrise Centers are situated within a 10-minute drive or a 15-minute walk of several bus stops, ensuring they are accessible to most students. However, the Kinder Institute’s research also revealed that 39% of campus staff were unaware of the services offered at the centers, and 36% did not even know the centers existed.
Sunrise Centers operate year-round, Monday through Friday, typically from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students can be referred to the centers by teachers or other campus staff, and all locations also accept walk-in visitors.
Unlike wraparound services, Sunrise Centers serve as a “one-stop shop” for student needs, according to researchers.
In their first year of operation, the centers served over 30,000 students, the Kinder Institute reports.
One of the greatest student needs identified is access to mental health care, according to researchers. Previously, students could be referred to wraparound services for mental health support, but Najah Callander, HISD’s deputy chief of family and community partnerships, explained that the district was unable to confirm if students actually received help.
The district says this issue has now been resolved through the Sunrise Centers.
“If a student is struggling with depression or anxiety, there is a mental health provider on-site for immediate connection. It’s not a waiting game,” Callander said. “We no longer just count the number of students identified with mental health needs. We now track the number of students who have received services and the hours of therapy provided.”
Using the ProUnitas data-tracking platform, HISD found that 33% of students who visited a Sunrise Center last school year showed improved attendance or behavior.
“We celebrated when we heard that,” Callander said.