Earlier this year, the state legislature passed legislation that shines a spotlight on the needs of Texas' 5.4 million students. House Bill 3 added more than $6 billion in funding for Texas public schools, directing most of those dollars towards students with specific educational needs. While the bill funds a variety of different programs, one of the major changes it makes to school funding is to what is called "Compensatory Education" (Comp Ed). Comp Ed funding is directed towards students who are educationally disadvantaged. Prior to House Bill 3, students were identified to receive this funding if they qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. Legislators recognized that the needs of this student population vary from student to student and not only raised the amount of funds students will receive, but created a five-tiered system to measure students' needs based on their individual circumstances. Funding will now be allocated based on census data, which will differentiate their educational needs based on household income, average household educational attainment, single-parent households, homeownership, and other economic criteria.

This significant update to the school finance system will help CSCISD's most vulnerable students receive services to better support them. Since the amount of funding per student depends on census data, it is more important than ever that every household fills out the 2020 Census. Please help us make sure that students have access to the resources that will allow them to succeed.