Brazosport ISD trustees vote to waive tuition for nonresident transfer students for 2025–26

Brazosport ISD trustees on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution to waive tuition fees for nonresident transfer students for the 2025–26 school year.

District Chief of Staff/Presenter Mr. Whitehead told the board the recommendation is made under Texas Education Code guidance and the district’s FDA local policy. He read elements of section 25.036, saying “any child may transfer annually from a child's school district of residence to another district in the state if both the receiving district and the applicant jointly approve and timely agree in writing to the transfer.” He also cited section 41.124 concerning wealth-per-student adjustments when districts serve nonresident students without charging tuition.

Whitehead said that as of the 2024–25 school year the district counted 253 out-of-district transfers, a roughly 8% decline from the prior year, and that 16 transfer requests had been denied for reasons such as life-skills classroom capacity or pending discipline or attendance issues. He described the district’s conditions of acceptance as annual application, attendance meeting a 90% threshold, appropriate attitude and behavior, parent cooperation and participation in state and local testing. He noted transfer approvals are generally valid for one year and may be revoked midsemester if criteria are not met.

Whitehead walked trustees through feeder-pattern numbers and the most common sending districts, reporting the largest numbers of incoming transfers to Brazoswood High School (68) and to specific feeder patterns (91 in the Lake Jackson feeder pattern). He also noted special-program counts among transfers, including 80 students identified as at-risk and 41 as gifted and talented.

Whitehead said the board’s current practice aligns with language in a pending state proposal, Senate Bill 12, which would expand parents’ transfer options statewide; he said that provision “would not change anything for us” because Brazosport ISD already applies transfer criteria such as discipline and program-capacity limits.

Board member motioning and vote: A motion to approve the tuition-waiver recommendation was made and seconded; the board voted in favor and the motion carried.

The board did not adopt changes to the transfer conditions at the meeting; the action recorded was the one-year waiver of tuition for approved nonresident transfers for 2025–26. The district staff said continuing practice requires annual renewal of transfer requests and that principals may recommend revocations where students do not meet conditions of acceptance.

Looking ahead, Whitehead said transfer totals change during the year and that the district tracks TEA lagging-data comparisons alongside current-year counts when reporting transfers.

Ending: The waiver takes effect for the 2025–26 school year; the board did not set additional policy changes at this meeting and staff said they would continue to report transfer counts and capacity constraints to trustees.