Office of the Superintendent of Schools
Office of Academics
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Authority To Renew Partnerships With AVANCE-Houston, Inc.; Gulf Coast Community Services Association; Harris County Department Of Education; And BakerRipley, For Head Start Prekindergarten Collaborative Programs
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The purpose of this agenda item is to seek approval from the Houston Independent School District (HISD) School Board to negotiate, execute, and amend agreement renewals with specific external agencies to create effective prekindergarten (pre-K) collaboratives. HISD collaborates with four federally funded Head Start agencies that serve regional sectors of Harris County within HISD boundaries. Collectively, all four agencies will partner with 23 HISD schools. Within the schools, the HISD and Head Start teachers collaborate and deliver instruction to dually enrolled students in 97 pre-K classrooms.
During the 2026-2027 school year, the HISD/AVANCE-Houston, Inc., Head Start pre-K collaborative will continue at Janowski Elementary School (ES). The HISD/Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) Head Start pre-K collaborative will continue at Dogan ES and Fonwood Early Childhood Center (ECC). The HISD/Gulf Coast Community Services Association (GCCSA) Head Start pre-K collaborative will continue at DeAnda ES, Kelso ES, Patterson ES, Peck ES, Reynolds ES, Rucker ES, Thompson ES, and Woodson PK-5 Leadership Academy. The HISD/BakerRipley Head Start pre-K collaborative will continue at Anderson ES, Benavidez ES, Bonham ES, Braeburn ES, Halpin ECC, King ECC, Mistral ECC, Neff ECC, Rodriguez ES, and Shearn ES.
The Head Start agencies will offer comprehensive services to eligible children at the designated schools. These services include medical, dental, nutritional, and psychological services for students and classes for parents. Preschoolers with disabilities will be enrolled according to HISD guidelines for special education and preK. The class sizes, program options, and hours of operation at each site will depend upon the mutually agreed-upon needs of the community, each individual campus, and the Head Start program. This determination will be made after the student-certification process is completed at each site. As space becomes available in schools or in standalone Head Start sites, additional classrooms, Head Start staff members, and HISD teachers may be added as agreed upon by all parties involved.
One HISD teacher and at least one Head Start staff member will serve each HISD/Head Start collaborative class. The HISD teachers at non-New Education System (NES) campuses will work 7.75 hours each day, with a 30-minute duty-free lunch and a 45-minute planning period. The HISD teachers at NES campuses will work 8 hours each day, with a 30-minute duty-free lunch, and a 60-minute planning period. The HISD teachers will be funded through state revenues generated by the average daily attendance of eligible students.
The Head Start agencies will furnish the classrooms in the collaboratives with appropriate furniture, materials, supplies, and playground equipment, if needed. The Head Start agencies provide teachers/teacher aides, materials, copying, and supplies as well as cover indirect costs with in-kind funds.
These collaboratives, while adhering to Head Start performance standards, will provide an appropriate program supported by and correlated to the HISD pre-K district curriculum, standards in Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, Fourth Edition (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2022), and the Texas Education Agency’s pre-K guidelines.
Preliminary Findings
In the 2024-2025 school year, 11,986 students were identified as HISD pre-K students attending 167 schools, with 1,206 of them participating in HISD Head Start programs at 19 schools.
In the 2025-2026 school year, the number of students identified as HISD pre-K program participants decreased by 354 students to 11,632 at 167 schools. However, the number of HISD Head Start program participants increased by 167 students from 1,206 at 19 schools in 2024-2025 to 1,373 students at 26 schools in 2025-2026.
Figure 1. HISD pre-K overall and Head Start enrollment, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026
In 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, most HISD pre-K students were Latino/a or Black/African American. In each year, Latino/a students represented a higher percentage of HISD pre-K students overall (64 percent and 71 percent, respectively) than of HISD Head Start participants (62 percent and 64 percent, respectively).
In 2024-2025, a higher percentage of Black/African American students were enrolled in the HISD Head Start program compared to the HISD pre-K overall enrollment (33 percent vs. 26 percent, respectively).
In 2025-2026, Black/African American students represented a slightly higher percentage of HISD pre-K students overall than of HISD Head Start participants (27 percent and 25 percent, respectively).
Figure 2. HISD pre-K overall and Head Start largest racial/ethnic groups, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026
In 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, a larger proportion of HISD Head Start pre-K students were identified as economically disadvantaged (99 percent or more each year) than HISD pre-K students, overall (92 percent each year).
In 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, a larger proportion of HISD Head Start pre-K students were identified as emergent bilingual/English learners (53 percent and 62 percent, respectively) than HISD pre-K students, overall (52 percent and 51 percent, respectively).
In 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, the proportion of students with disabilities eligible to receive special education program services was larger among HISD pre-K students, overall (13 percent each year) than among HISD Head Start pre-K students (8 percent and 10 percent, respectively).
Figure 3. HISD pre-K overall and Head Start student characteristics, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026
In 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, the proportion of students identified as at risk of dropping out of school was higher among HISD Head Start pre-K students (81 percent and 99 percent, respectively).
In 2024-2025, the proportion of students identified as at risk based on pre-K-grade 3 readiness assessments was higher among HISD Head Start pre-K students than among HISD pre-K students overall (63 percent and 58 percent, respectively).
In 2025-2026, the proportion of students identified as at risk based on pre-K-grade 3 readiness assessments was higher among HISD pre-K students overall compared to the HISD Head Start pre-K students (58 percent and 55 percent, respectively).
Figure 4. HISD pre-K overall and Head Start students at risk, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026
A list of the Head Start collaboratives is attached.
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COST/FUNDING SOURCE(S): |
The total cost of this program is not expected to exceed $17,837,166.84, of which HISD will pay $8,290,590.00 for salaries for HISD teachers. The balance of $9,546,577.84 will be covered by in-kind contributions from the four Head Start agencies. • $414,761 - AVANCE-Houston, Inc. • $4,517,336.84 - GCCSA • $1,243,191 - HCDE • $3,371,288 - BakerRipley |
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Fund |
Functional Area |
Program Intent Code (PIC) |
Process |
Account |
Cost Center |
Project |
Amount |
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199101 |
11 |
36 |
000 |
611901 |
Multiple |
000 |
$8,290,590 |
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STAFFING IMPLICATIONS: |
None |
THIS ITEM DOES NOT ESTABLISH, MODIFY, OR DELETE BOARD POLICY.
recommendation
RECOMMENDED: That the School Board authorizes the superintendent of schools or a designee to negotiate, execute, and amend agreement renewals for HISD/Head Start pre-K collaborative programs with AVANCE-Houston, Inc.; GCCSA; HCDE; and BakerRipley, effective August 14, 2026.