SAISD Choice Schools

Founded in 1899, SAISD is the third largest school district in Bexar County, and the 13th largest in Texas. The district boundaries include San Antonio’s central business district, world-renowned tourism hubs, upscale historic neighborhoods, and areas of multigenerational poverty subject to redlining. Over the past several decades, SAISD enrollment has been in decline, largely due to demographic changes such as lower birth rates and smaller households, but also due to the growth of charter schools.

Superintendent Dr. Jaime Aquino became SAISD’s top leader on May 3, 2022. The greatest challenge that Aquino and the Board of Trustees currently face is rightsizing: the process of closing or redesigning schools to adjust to the changing needs of the district, ensuring that all students and schools receive equitable funding. On our site, we have created a blog post that analyzes the final recommendation on rightsizing, approved by the SAISD board on November 13, 2023, as well as a blog post that offers options for families affected by rightsizing.

Under Aquino’s leadership, SAISD continues to pursue a System of Great Schools model—a strategy launched by Pedro Martinez, who served as superintendent from 2015 to 2021. The theory is that a traditional public school district can evolve into a 21st century education system by adopting some of the best practices of charter schools, such as offering families a variety of educational models, giving more autonomy to campus-level school leaders, and closing the least effective schools in the portfolio. These strategies give traditional public school districts the opportunity to effectively compete with charter schools for student enrollment, and they have the long-term effect of raising the overall quality of public education in a community.

To read more about SAISD in the news, we recommend that you click on the articles linked at the bottom of this post, and visit SAISD’s newsroom. Also, we invite you to join the San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group on Facebook and ask questions; the group includes current SAISD families who can comment with answers based on their own experiences.

SAISD Registration & Enrollment at Choice Schools

Families who are interested in enrolling their students at SAISD can apply online; paper applications are available upon request. According to the school choice timeline, the application window for 2024–25 opened on December 1, 2023. The deadline to submit an application for lotteries is February 15, 2024; families will still be able to submit applications after this date, but they will be added to the waiting list based on when they applied. The first round of 2024–25 offers will be announced by March 1, 2024; the deadline to accept those offers is March 22, 2024. Students on waiting lists will begin receiving offers as early as March 19, 2024, and that will continue into the new school year. Find more information on the Choice Schools FAQ.

SAISD is offering information sessions about choice schools and for particular programs and campuses, both in-person and virtual. Learn about upcoming events at saisdchoice.com and on social media.