Ahead of a new Texas law limiting tuition-based preschool programs in public school districts, Northside Independent School District is expanding its own free pre-K offerings.
Passed during the 89th legislative session in June, House Bill 2 is a large education bill with many early childhood provisions meant to boost the local childcare industry and make preschool seats more accessible.
Under the new laws, school districts would have to stop offering tuition-based pre-K programs by the 2027-28 school year unless they can prove there’s no other childcare seats available in the area. Even then, school districts would have to partner with an outside provider approved by the state and share most of their per-pupil state funding.
“We know we’ll never obtain that,” said Barbara Triplett, an early education program administrator at Northside ISD, while discussing the changes with school board trustees in December.
NISD is the largest school district in San Antonio, serving nearly 100,000 students from Leon Valley to Fair Oaks Ranch. Steadily losing enrollment each year, the district currently faces a $38 million budget deficit.
Before the state passed HB 2 this summer, NISD was already implementing changes to its preschool program, expanding offerings to make more profit by offering tuition-based preschool at more campuses for district employees.
“It would introduce our employees’ children into general ed classrooms with our other students which would then provide more opportunities for more students, reduce the costs by half and increase the campuses from 20 campuses to 50 campuses.
“It was a win for everyone,” Triplett said.
Now, the district is going to pivot again following the state’s new rules under HB 2.
On top of not charging classroom teachers tuition anymore, Northside ISD is expanding the district’s free pre-K program in 2026-27 to include a limited number of qualifying 3-year-olds with opportunities to blend age 3 students into existing age 4 classrooms when “developmentally appropriate and operationally feasible.”
Since 2019, school districts in Texas have been required to provide free full-day preschool for eligible children age 4 who are either English learners, educationally disadvantaged, in foster care, have an active military parent, are homeless or have a parent who’s received the Star of Texas Award.
HB 2 expands eligibility to 3-year-olds but because school districts aren’t required to offer pre-K 3, the programs that accept younger pupils will probably be fewer and smaller.
Since pre-K 3 is optional, school districts also have the flexibility to cap the number of spots they offer instead of having to automatically accept all children eligible under state guidelines.
As part of its pivot, Northside will discontinue its tuition-based program for 3- and 4-year-olds, at the end of the 2025-26 school year, but will allow currently enrolled students to stay on for 2026-27.
District staff said the new arrangement will “build system capacity,” academically and socially engage students at an earlier age, support classroom teachers with a no-cost option and provide “timely notice” to non-classroom teachers that alternative childcare plans may be needed.
District Superintendent John Craft said he would work to continue expanding the program to give students eligible for free pre-K an opportunity to jumpstart their education.
“This particular student demographic is going to need every opportunity they can attain to get a head start,” he said.
Northside does have some concerns with the changes. The district may need additional staff and pre-K classroom sections, and blending pre-K 3 with pre-K 4 can be difficult when considering different instructional and developmental needs.
It was also critical that Northside expand the program to eligible 3-year-olds now, since HB 2 bars districts from expanding seat capacity once the 2027-28 school year starts.
While primarily Republican lawmakers touted HB 2 as a historic investment in public education that prioritized classroom teachers and addressed early education gaps, some child advocates say parts of the bill will actually hurt school districts and the private providers in their areas.
Texans Care For Children, a research and policy group that advocates for child protection and early learning, said tuition-based pre-K through public schools is generally more affordable than private preschool or child care, and approximately 10,000 families in Texas choose this option.
HB 2 could also have unintended consequences by limiting school districts from meeting the actual demand for childcare and putting a larger burden on outside providers, especially in fast-growing or rural areas with less infrastructure.
San Antonio does have several private providers and a city-funded preschool program called Pre-K 4 SA that could potentially come in as partners under HB 2’s changes to state law.
Some school districts — like San Antonio ISD, South San Antonio ISD and Edgewood ISD —already partner with outside entities like Pre-K 4 SA and nonprofits that offer federally funded Head Start programs.
However, recent studies show there are still not enough quality seats available in the Bexar County area to meet the early education and child care needs of families, especially on the South Side.
Pre-K 4 SA is currently at capacity across all locations with some openings due to natural attrition, chief executive officer Sarah Baray told the Report. The program already started priority enrollment for next year and has seen a “strong interest as expected.”
“As for the changes to state law, this change was made to help strengthen the early learning ecosystem by encouraging ISDs to partner with local childcare providers rather than competing with them,” Baray said. “Pre-K 4 SA is supporting this effort through the San Antonio Shared Services Alliance by helping childcare providers find ISDs willing to partner.”
