Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the eighth largest public school district in the U.S., with nearly 190,000 students across 274 schools . Of those schools, 120 are considered Magnet Schools . Magnet schools, known as “magnets,” aim to attract specific types of students from across the district to their programs.
Unlike private schools, magnet schools do not get to pick-and-choose which students ultimately attend; all qualified students have an equal shot of acceptance, and students are chosen based on a lottery system.
Applications to HISD’s most popular magnet schools always outnumber the available seats. For example, more than 600 students usually apply for about 50 seats at River Oaks Elementary, HISD’s most popular elementary schools. In order to most fairly determine which child gets admitted, the district uses a computerized lottery.
Generally speaking, every qualified applicant (see more about qualification requirements below) has an equal chance of admission. This means that, regardless of how many programs you apply to, there is a chance that your child won’t be accepted to any of them. This is no reflection on your child; it’s just how the system works.
Yes! To maximize admission chances, apply to as many schools as possible, and apply to less-selective and less-coveted schools in addition to your top choices. In the 2023-2024 School Choice Lottery, students may apply to up to 10 schools including 5 vanguard programs.
Don’t get your heart set on one school; you’ll only set yourself up for disappointment. Some of Houston’s best elementary schools accept fewer than 10% of magnet applicants, so be realistic. Apply to top schools, but also include a few safety schools that are still appealing for your child. When choosing safety schools, consider yield as well as acceptance rate – the lower the yield, the greater the chance a waitlisted student will eventually be offered a spot.
Of course, if magnet schools are only one of the options you’re considering, you don’t necessarily have to put effort into maximizing the odds of acceptance. If you’d be content with your zoned neighborhood school ( you can find yours here ), or if you’re looking at private schools as well, it’s perfectly alright to apply only to the one or two magnet schools where you feel your child would excel. Just bear in mind that admission is far from guaranteed, and make sure you’ve picked a good backup school.
When applying, rank HISD magnet schools from most to least preferred. Acceptance into a higher-ranked school removes you from the waitlist of lower-ranked schools. Therefore, it’s important to think carefully about which schools are the ones you most want your child to attend.
We recommend that you begin looking at possible schools approximately one year before your child would enroll – August 2023 for a 2024 enrollment, for example. This year in advance will give you and your children plenty of time to consider the options before the application period opens at the end of September. While considering prospective schools, we encourage you to check out our profiles of HISD’s top magnet schools as well as our upcoming analysis of the top HISD magnet programs for 2023.
HISD provides several resources to help parents choose the best schools for their children. On School Choice Thursdays (or Magnet Thursdays), which are held throughout October, November, and early December, all Magnet Campuses offer tours to interested parents, with both morning and afternoon tours available. During the same time frame, parents can also attend HISD-hosted Magnet Open Houses on select Saturdays. Scheduling and location information for these events is typically made available on the HISD site and in local news media close to the time of.
Parents may apply to up to 10 magnet schools per student in HISD, which is twice as many as it was a few years ago. To maximize the odds of admission, it’s a good idea to select 2-3 top-tier selective schools, such as those profiled by the Houston School Survey, and use the remaining application slots for mid-range and safety schools.
The order in which you rank schools is crucial. You will be asked to rank your choices from one to ten (if you apply to ten schools). If your child is admitted to a given school, their applications for schools which you ranked lower will be automatically withdrawn. This means you must take care to rank top-tier choices first, followed by mid-range and safety schools. Within each of these three clusters, we recommend ranking schools according to how well the program matches your child’s needs, rather than by probability of admission.
When selecting your top-choice schools, there are several considerations to bear in mind. The foremost, of course, is whether your child will thrive in a particular program. Self-motivated and creative students often excel in Montessori programs, while those with specialized interests find magnet programs targeting specific subject areas beneficial, like STEM, world languages, and the fine arts. Other factors to take into account include location, budget, single-sex vs. coeducational classroom settings, and the availability of advanced curricula such as IB and AP (all of which are discussed in our page on choosing a new school).
As you are choosing your schools, you will see one term come up again and again – Vanguard. This title denotes HISD’s programs for Gifted and Talented (G/T) students. Many of HISD’s best schools are dedicated Vanguard magnets*, meaning that students must be certified by HISD as G/T before they can enroll. As detailed under “Determination of Qualification” below, Vanguard applications require extra materials and testing to identify a student as G/T. (Please note, for the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year, the deadline to register for G/T testing was December 8, 2023, which has now passed.)
Unless your child is already registered as G/T with HISD, we recommend that you select more non-Vanguard than Vanguard schools as top choices. After all, as HISD points out on their website , “If you apply to 5 Vanguard programs, and your student is not ultimately identified as Gifted and Talented, your student will not be considered for any of the Vanguard programs chosen.”
*It is important to note that dedicated Vanguard magnets are different from Gifted and Talented Neighborhood schools. Most HISD magnet schools have G/T Neighborhood programs to serve the needs of G/T students, but G/T certification is a condition of enrollment only at dedicated Vanguard magnets. If you are interested in the G/T Neighborhood option for your child, or if you want to know more about the difference between dedicated Vanguard magnets and G/T Neighborhood schools, click here .
To have any chance of admission to a desirable HISD magnet school, you must apply by the the end of Phase 1, which at the time of this article’s publishing was February 23, 2024 for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Source: HISD School Choice
Phase 1 magnet applications open on January 18, 2024, and close February 23, 2024. HISD residents (or the children of active HISD employees who live outside the HISD boundaries) who apply at any time during the Phase 1 window have an equal chance in the admissions lottery for each school, with the exception of those who have siblings who are already enrolled in a given program (see “The Admissions Lottery” below). All students who meet the qualifications for a given program will be entered into the lottery if there are more applicants than available seats.
All popular schools will be filled up with long waiting lists at the end of Phase 1. You have absolutely no chance of getting into a popular school if you miss the Phase 1 deadline. Do not miss the Phase 1 deadline. The results of the Phase 1 lottery will be announced on March 26, 2024.
Phase 2 begins in late March 2024 and lasts until at least through the end of May – as of now, the Phase 2 deadline is “TBA.” Phase 2 is essentially the phase for latecomers. Once the Phase 1 applications from HISD residents have been processed, Phase 2 applications from HISD residents will be considered in the order in which they are received by HISD. In other words, Phase 2 admissions are carried out on a rolling basis; seats are offered as they become available, but only after all Phase 1 applicants have received their offers of admission or their spots on waitlists. This is why it is in the absolute best interest of HISD-zoned students to apply during Phase 1.
Phase 3 takes place throughout June and July, and it is the only time during which the applications of eligible, out-of-district students are considered – even if applicants who live outside of HISD apply during Phase 1 or 2, their applications will not be considered until Phase 3. Even then, HISD residents still take priority during Phase 3, as out-of-district applications are not processed until there are no remaining applications from eligible, in-district students.
The bottom line for HISD residents is that you should consider the end of Phase 1 your application deadline; as long as you get your application in by that early-December cutoff (and consider your magnet program rankings carefully, as described above), this will maximize your chances for a spot in the school of your choice.
To apply to magnet schools in Houston, HISD strongly recommends you create an account through the HISD School Choice online portal . Though students are allowed to apply via US Mail with a paper-copy version of the application, the online application as the easiest and most efficient application method, as it allows applicants to re-rank their magnet school choices prior to the Phase 1 deadline in February, view their application status online, upload any required documentation, and track their position on wait lists. It is important to note that returning online applicants should apply with the same online account they have used in the past.
To apply for each of your chosen magnet programs, simply fill out a form for each selected school. The application form is quick and straightforward, especially if you use the online version. It consists mostly of basic personal information about the prospective student, the student’s guardian(s), and any siblings who are already enrolled in HISD. Vanguard applications also include a space to designate recommending teachers.
Students who attended an HISD school for the entire preceding school year and who are currently enrolled in HISD are not required to submit any documents on top of the application for each school. If your child will be a first-time HISD student, however, you will need to provide all of the required documentation. Every application form will list the necessary documents for that particular school, but the requirements for a given grade level are standardized throughout the district. These documents can be uploaded online, sent by U.S. mail to the Office of School Choice, or dropped off in person at the Office of School Choice or to individual schools’ magnet offices.
