College Station ISD decides eligibility, schools available for out-of-district transfers

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - College Station Independent School District is moving forward with its out-of-district transfer program called “Choose CSISD.” The program outlines who is eligible to apply and which schools are available for the 2026-27 school year.

Families who live outside of College Station ISD’s boundaries are getting a new opportunity to go to their schools, but only if they meet certain criteria, which include:

• Students must maintain at least an 85% average in all core subjects
• Demonstrate strong attendance, with a minimum 90% attendance rate
• Have no more than three minor disciplinary referrals
• Have no major infractions

The program opens the door for out-of-district students, as Austin Dunson, CSISD director of communications, said the district looks to boost enrollment.

“We have seen a slight decline in enrollment here in College Station ISD, and so we wanted to be proactive and see what we could do to help that a little bit,” Dunson said.

Next school year, the program will be limited to two campuses, Creek View Elementary and Cypress Grove Intermediate, based on projected capacity.

“We believe we have a great educational product here, high-quality instruction, great certified teachers, amazing extracurricular programs, and we believe in that so much that we want to offer it to more folks than those that live in our boundaries,” Dunson said.

College Station ISD isn’t alone as districts across the area are using out-of-district transfers as a way to give families more options, while also protecting their student numbers. Stu Musick, Navasota ISD superintendent, said they have already been implementing this.

“We do allow for out-of-district transfers,” Musick said. “Probably like everybody else, we there’s an out-of-district application that they do to request a transfer and based upon behavior and based upon attendance and so forth.”

Officials say programs like this may become the future of K-12 schools.

“The landscape of public education has shifted over the past several years,” Dunson said. “A lot of that has to do with state funding models. Some of that has to do with the competitiveness that exists in the education space now.

Families have from now until February 27th to send in their application, and acceptance notifications will go out on March 5th and enrollment confirmations have to be made by March 20th.