The opposite day, a neighborhood schooling reporter requested me a very good query. As soon as Have fun Dyslexia Faculties and Triumph Public Excessive College San Antonio open in August 2024, what number of constitution faculties will there be in San Antonio? The reply may very well be as excessive as 213, relying on the way you outline phrases like “constitution college” and “San Antonio.” Let’s nerd out about San Antonio constitution faculties!
That large quantity, 213, contains a number of college fashions, resembling open enrollment public constitution faculties, in-district constitution faculties, and magnet faculties. It additionally contains constitution faculties in residential services. Lastly, it covers the whole space of Training Service Heart Area 20 (ESC Area 20).
College Fashions
For those who outline “constitution college” as solely open enrollment constitution faculties, then there are 93 within the San Antonio space. Open enrollment constitution faculties are operated by a nonprofit or a college with an appointed board. They’re tuition-free public faculties which are open to all college students, together with college students in particular schooling and emergent bilingual college students. Once I began this weblog in 2012, my objective was to assist mother and father and caregivers study new open enrollment public constitution faculties coming to San Antonio, together with IDEA Public Faculties (2012), BASIS Texas Constitution Faculties (2013), and Nice Hearts Texas (2014).
For those who embody in-district constitution faculties and magnet faculties, that’s an extra 109 campuses within the San Antonio space. Generally I point out that San Antonio ISD is definitely the most important constitution authorizer in San Antonio, with 43 campuses—and that’s the up to date quantity after SAISD Rightsizing. Greater than half of SAISD campuses are in-district constitution faculties. We additionally associate with East Central ISD, Edgewood ISD, and North East ISD on enrollment guides. Out of these 109 faculties, roughly 70 are in-district constitution faculties and roughly are 40 magnet faculties, though the definitions are a bit of fuzzy.
Our information to constitution faculties in San Antonio covers open enrollment public constitution faculties and in-district constitution faculties. We think about these to the be the free, public faculties of selection that almost all households within the San Antonio space have entry to. Nevertheless, there may be one other sort of constitution college that we don’t at present cowl on the information: faculties positioned in residential services. These 11 faculties should not related to a typical college search as a result of they’re positioned in establishments like psychological well being therapy services, substance abuse therapy services, and detention facilities.
Taking a step again, these selection faculties are grouped into 53 entities, together with CMOs (Constitution Administration Organizations, i.e., networks of open enrollment constitution faculties), single-site constitution faculties, and ISDs that function selection faculties.
San Antonio Space
As a proxy for “San Antonio space,” I depend on the boundaries of ESC Area 20. This space contains some cities—resembling Bulverde, Canyon Lake, Uvalde, Leakey, and Ingram—which are arguably exterior the San Antonio metro space. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of Area 20’s constitution college campuses are inside Loop 1604. Trying on the selection faculties which are positioned exterior the San Antonio metro space, some are positioned in residential services and others are early school highschool magnets in rural ISDs and CISDs.
There may be some wiggle room within the quantity of open enrollment constitution college campuses. We often go by the notion locally, even when that’s totally different from what’s reported on TXSchools.gov or one other TEA supply. For instance, households understand Nice Hearts Monte Vista as one college, despite the fact that there are two addresses and two charters within the TEA system. Nevertheless, the KIPP Cevallos campus has one constructing with three faculties which have distinctive identities.
Conventional Public Faculties within the San Antonio Space
ESC Area 20 stories on the variety of districts and faculties of their 19–county space. As of 2021–22, their area accommodates 58 conventional public college districts and 593 conventional public college campuses. These conventional public faculties serve 443,520 college students.
