Students perform an experiment during class at Heights High School.

The Houston Independent School District promotes the concept of neighborhood schools and community involvement. Each school in the district serves the specific neighborhood within that school's attendance zone, and every student enrolled in the regular academic program is assigned to a particular school according to where his or her parent or legal guardian resides. Under certain circumstances, however, HISD approves requests for students to attend schools other than the ones zoned to serve their home address.

 

When a school of choice has space available and accepts a student from outside its attendance zone, HISD requires that the parents agree to keep the student at the chosen school for the entire school year. Parents may also apply to a school other than the "zoned" campus for other types of transfers, such as impassable geographic barriers, space-available, out-of-district, adequate yearly progress (AYP), and public education grant (PEG). Students are only allowed one transfer of any type per school year. Should a student choose to leave the school to which he or she has transferred, that student may only return to the zoned campus.