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Wichita Falls ISD reports small enrollment dip; board hears updates on school‑related bills
Summary
Board vice president reported a recent enrollment decline and reviewed several pending Texas education bills — including House Bill 3 (education savings accounts), Senate Bill 1925 (truancy changes) and House Bill 6 (discipline) — and discussed potential local effects; superintendent clarified some details about funding reimbursement.
The Wichita Falls ISD vice president reported a modest but sustained decline in enrollment in recent weeks and briefed the board on several Texas legislative measures the district is tracking.
The vice president said the district lost roughly 51 students in the two most recent weeks of reporting and noted that “approximately every 10 kids you lose, that’s 1 FTE,” a shorthand the district uses to estimate staffing and funding impacts. The district’s average daily attendance (ADA) was reported as approximately 93 percent at the time of the update.
On legislative matters, the vice president summarized debate around House Bill 3 (an education savings account / voucher measure), saying the bill drew large public testimony and that the district’s understanding of testimony numbers included the claim that it “costs about 1,000,000,000 in 2025 and about 5,500,000,000.0 by 02/1930,” a figure the vice president attributed to testimony he had seen. He said the House left the measure pending after marathon floor debate.
The vice president also highlighted Senate Bill 1925 as a bill addressing truancy and local discretion on referrals; he said the bill removes certain exemptions for homeless or mentally ill students and noted it would require prosecutors to accept truancy referrals in some cases. On House Bill 6, the vice president said the measure would keep a three‑day limit on out‑of‑school suspension but contains provisions for expanded use of virtual disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP) and additional changes related to vaping and expulsions. He described an increase in the allowable out‑of‑placement period for special education students from a previous 10‑day reference to 60 days in the draft he discussed.
Superintendent Dr. Donnie Lee clarified that education savings account payments would operate as reimbursements under current interpretations: “The money that is received, it has to be… It’s a reimbursement,” he said during the presentation.
The vice president also flagged a statistic from the Teachers Retirement System reported in testimony after Florida’s ESA passage: a reported 58.6 percent increase in homeschooling; he said the district would watch for similar trends and potential effects on enrollment and funding.
No board action on legislation was taken; the presentation was offered for situational awareness and to identify issues staff will watch as bills move through the legislature.
