Thousands of Corpus Christi ISD students left their home campus without leaving the school district this fall.
For years, the Corpus Christi Independent School District has hemorrhaged students, losing more than 4,000 students since 2019-20.
One of the ways the district hopes to keep more students is by allowing more flexibility for internal transfers within the district.
What does the data show about how students are shuffling within Corpus Christi ISD?
According to data provided by Corpus Christi ISD to the Caller-Times through a public information request, about 1,000 students were granted a transfer from their home campus to another CCISD campus in the 2025-26 school year.
Not included in that count are the 2,300-plus students who left their home campus to attend a special campus.
This includes the district’s early college high schools, Branch Academy and Collegiate High School; alternative campus Coles High School; the Early Childhood Development Center; gifted and talented campus Windsor Park Elementary School; and arts magnet program Metro Prep School of Design.
The district offers a lottery for students who want to attend the Early Childhood Center, Metro Elementary and Prep programs, Branch Academy and Collegiate High School.
Students are invited to attend Windsor Park Elementary School based on district-wide gifted and talented testing in kindergarten. Students can also request testing in later grades.
Additionally, special career and technical education programs are offered at specific campuses, such as the aviation program at Veterans Memorial High School, the maritime program at Carroll High School and the engineering program at Moody High School.
This year, the campus with the largest number of outgoing transfers was Lexington Middle School, which opened this fall. This can be explained by the district’s policy allowing students to remain at their old school after a boundary change.
Calk-Wilson Elementary School had 65 outgoing transfers.
Carroll High School and King High School had the highest number of outgoing transfers among district high schools, counting 60 and 47 respectively.
Browne Middle School, which will close before next school year, had 45 outgoing transfers. Six other campuses will also close before next year. As a group, these campuses did not stand out in the outgoing transfer data. Two of the closing schools had some of the lowest outgoing transfer counts in the district.
Ten district campuses had fewer than 10 outgoing transfers: Gibson, Zavala, Oak Park, Galvan, Los Encinos, Fannin, Allen, Yeager and Berlanga elementary schools and Martin Middle School.
These internal transfer figures are generally lower than external transfer figures.
Where do Corpus Christi ISD residents attend school if they leave the district?
The district competes with private and charter schools operating within the school district’s boundaries, virtual school programs and neighboring public school districts.
In early April, the Texas Comptroller’s Office shared that 2,100 students residing in Corpus Christi ISD have applied for funding through the new Texas Education Freedom Account program to pay for private or home school costs. Just under 430 of these applicants previously enrolled in public school.
In late March, the Caller-Times highlighted transfer data for Coastal Bend schools, revealing that 5,526 students residing in Corpus Christi ISD attended another public or charter school this fall.
Barnes Elementary School, which lost only 20 students to internal transfers to other Corpus Christi ISD schools, lost 172 students to the School of Science and Technology alone. The charter school’s Corpus Christi campuses also nabbed more than 100 students each from Kolda Elementary School, Carroll High School, Smith Elementary School and Moore Elementary School, according to Texas Education Agency data.
The charter school also gained at least 50 students each from Los Encinos, Schanen Estates, Sanders, Kostoryz, Galvan and Dawson elementary schools and Browne, Cunningham, Kaffie and Grant middle schools.
Zavala Elementary School lost 96 students to a different charter school, Promesa College Prep.
King High School lost 139 students to Flour Bluff High School, while Veterans Memorial High School lost 101 and Carroll High School lost 63. Ray High School lost 61 to Richard Milburn Academy, a charter school.
Ronald Kanipes, CCISD’s director of admissions, attendance and support, said that the district is allowing more “campus-of-choice” transfers due to parent feedback. Several parents who have left the district said that they might have kept their children within Corpus Christi ISD if they had been able to attend their preferred campus, Kanipes said.
How does Corpus Christi ISD handle internal transfers?
Full-time Corpus Christi ISD employees can request a transfer for their children to the campus where they work, a feeder school for the campus where they work or another campus based on available space.
Under state law, peace officers and active-duty service members can also request a transfer for their child.
When there are extraordinary circumstances affecting a family, they can request an administrative transfer. Students with significant medical needs can also request a transfer.
Additionally, students who have been affected by a violent criminal offense, bullying or sexual assault can request a transfer.
When the district changes school boundaries, the district also allows students to remain at their old school.
When one student is approved to transfer to a campus within Corpus Christi ISD, the district also allows siblings to apply to attend with them.
The newest option is the “campus of choice” transfer, which allows students to apply to transfer to another campus based on their preference. These “choice” transfer requests will be considered for all campuses except designated special campuses, which have a separate application process.
Transfer decisions are based on availability of space and instructional staff, as well as the student’s disciplinary history, attendance record and academic performance, according to the CCISD website.
However, students interested in transferring schools, whether within Corpus Christi ISD or to another public school district, should be aware that transfer students are not guaranteed eligibility to participate in University Interscholastic League activities.
The UIL specifically prohibits eligibility for students if they change schools for athletic purposes.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: How many students transfer to other schools within Corpus Christi ISD?
Reporting by Olivia Garrett, Corpus Christi Caller Times / Corpus Christi Caller Times
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