Houston charter schools

Charter schools in Houston: 20 campuses across five networks

By the research team at School, Clearly.

Reviewed by Eric Moore, founder.

AI-assisted research. Our method.

Twenty campuses checked September 7, 2026. Eleven network pages re-read September 8, 2026.

At a glance

KIPP, YES Prep, Harmony, IDEA and Houston Classical each take their own application, on their own system, with their own deadline. Applying to one does not put your child in another network's lottery, and the HISD School Choice application does not reach any of them.

Is there one application for Houston charter schools?

No. There are five, one for each network on this page, and a family weighing campuses in three networks fills in three applications with three deadlines. Four of the five use SchoolMint and IDEA uses its own system, STREAM. The shared software does not merge the applications, and each network takes its own.

The HISD School Choice application is a different thing again. It covers Houston ISD schools and programs. The HISD page that describes it names no charter network, and we read it on September 8, 2026 to confirm that. Older Houston coverage points families to a shared charter application at applyhouston.org. That address did not resolve when we tried to load it on September 8, 2026.

A charter school here is a tuition-free public school run by an open-enrollment charter network rather than by the district. An HISD magnet is a program inside an HISD school. For an application, the difference that matters is simply who receives it.

Five networks, five calendars

Below is what each network published on its own pages when we read them on September 8, 2026. Where a network has not posted a 2027-28 window, the cell says so. Prior-cycle dates appear only with the words 2026-27 cycle attached, because a closed date is not a prediction of the next one. Each network name in the Application column links to the page we read.

Network	Campuses here	Application	2027-28 window as published	Transportation
YES Prep	6	YES Prep Student Lottery Application on SchoolMint EnrollRandom lottery when applications exceed seats.	Opens October 1, 2026. Deadline 11:59 p.m. February 13, 2027. Lottery and family notifications February 22, 2027.The FAQ lower on the same page says submit by February 12, 2027. Both dates were on the page on September 8, 2026. Confirm with the campus before you rely on the later one.	Bus service for students living more than 2 miles from their primary-zoned campus.Each campus has a primary zone. Confirm yours with the campus.
KIPP Texas	5	KIPP Texas application on SchoolMintAutomated random lottery when applications exceed seats.	Not published as of September 8, 2026.The apply page still shows the 2026-27 cycle: opened October 1, 2025, lottery deadline January 26, 2026, lottery February 2, 2026. KIPP opened its last cycle on October 1, so watch the apply page from late September 2026.	Free bus transportation across the Houston region. Stops are assigned from your home address and aim to fall within 2 to 3 miles of most addresses.Stops vary by school.
Harmony Public Schools	5	Harmony online application on SchoolMintBlind lottery when applications exceed seats, held within 15 days of the deadline.	Specific 2027-28 dates not published as of September 8, 2026. The standing rule is open enrollment November 1 to February 10 each year, or to March 15 for a new campus.Recheck after November 1, 2026.	Not published on the network site as of September 8, 2026.We found no transportation page on the network site, the parents page or the campus subdomains. That is an absence of published information, not a statement that no bus exists. Ask the campus.
IDEA Public Schools	3	IDEA lottery page, application in STREAMRandom lottery by grade when applications exceed seats.	Texas applications opened September 1, 2026. Greater Houston lottery February 20, 2027. Deadline 11:59 p.m. February 19, 2027.IDEA prints the lottery date and states that the deadline is always 11:59 p.m. the day before it. February 19 follows from that rule and is not printed as a date.	Bus routes for 2026-27 are posted for the Houston campuses and families register in PowerSchool.The sentence on the transportation page carrying the word free names the Rio Grande Valley and Central Texas, so confirm cost and routes with the campus.
Houston Classical	1	Houston Classical enrollment page, application on SchoolMintRandom lottery in February when applications exceed seats.	Not published as of September 8, 2026.The 2026-27 cycle lottery was February 9, 2026, marked on the page as already held, with applications reviewed on a rolling basis afterward as seats open.	Free bus service in the Alief area by interest form. 2026-27 service began August 17, 2026.

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What is published for 2027-28, and what is not

Two of the five networks have posted a 2027-28 date. Three have not. One of those three, Harmony, publishes a standing window that runs on the same schedule every year. The other two have posted nothing for 2027-28 at all. That is the state of it in early September 2026, and it is worth knowing before you build a calendar.

YES Prep has posted, and contradicts itself by one day

The lottery application page gives a window of October 1, 2026 to February 13, 2027, with the deadline at 11:59 p.m. on February 13 and the lottery on February 22, 2027. An FAQ block further down the same page tells families to submit by February 12, 2027. We are not choosing between them. Both were on the page when we read it on September 8, 2026, and a family that submits by February 12 satisfies either reading.

IDEA has posted a lottery date, and the deadline follows from a rule

Texas applications for 2027-28 opened September 1, 2026 and the Greater Houston lottery is February 20, 2027. IDEA does not print a deadline date. It states that the deadline is always 11:59 p.m. the day before the lottery, which puts it at February 19, 2027.

Harmony publishes a standing window instead of dates

Harmony's rule is the same every year: open enrollment runs November 1 to February 10, or to March 15 for a new campus, and the lottery is held within 15 days of the deadline. No 2027-28 dates were posted on September 8, 2026. The window should open on November 1, 2026, and that is worth rechecking then rather than assuming.

KIPP Texas and Houston Classical have posted nothing for 2027-28

Both sites still carry their 2026-27 cycle. KIPP opened that cycle on October 1, 2025 with a January 26, 2026 lottery deadline. Houston Classical held its lottery on February 9, 2026 and takes applications on a rolling basis afterward. Neither set of dates tells you anything reliable about 2027-28. We are watching both pages and will date the change here when it appears.

Transportation is a different question at every network

The five networks here answer the transportation question in five different ways. YES Prep ties service to distance, more than 2 miles from the campus your address is zoned to. KIPP runs stops across the region and assigns yours from your home address, aiming to keep it within 2 to 3 miles. IDEA posts routes per campus and asks families to register in PowerSchool. Houston Classical runs buses in the Alief area for families who fill in an interest form. Harmony publishes nothing about transportation on its site at all.

Two things follow. A campus that looks close on a map may still be a daily driving commitment, and the answer is only knowable per address, so it belongs in a call to the campus rather than in a table. Where our table says not published, that means we could not find the information on the network's own pages on the checked date. It does not mean there is no bus.

Twenty Houston charter campuses

These twenty campuses are the charter sample in our dated Houston source list, checked against each network's own pages on September 7, 2026. Grade spans are labeled with the school year each network prints beside them, because the networks do not use the same year. Where a name or a grade span differs from what a parent might expect, the note says so.

Campus	Network	Grades	Source
YES Prep North Central	YES Prep	6-12From the network secondary page, which lists all six campuses. Campus pages do not print a span.	northcentral.yesprep.org
YES Prep Northside	YES Prep	6-12Network secondary page.	northside.yesprep.org
YES Prep Southeast	YES Prep	6-12Network secondary page.	southeast.yesprep.org
YES Prep Southwest	YES Prep	6-12Network secondary page.	southwest.yesprep.org
YES Prep West	YES Prep	6-12Network secondary page.	west.yesprep.org
YES Prep Gulfton	YES Prep	6-12Network secondary page.	gulfton.yesprep.org
KIPP CONNECT Primary	KIPP Texas	PK-5 in 2025-26	kipptexas.org
KIPP CONNECT Preparatory	KIPP Texas	6-12 in 2025-26Our earlier sheet called this campus KIPP CONNECT Middle School. KIPP publishes no page under that name. The page at 6700 Bellaire Blvd is KIPP CONNECT Preparatory and lists 6-12.	kipptexas.org
KIPP SHARP Preparatory	KIPP Texas	PK3-5 in 2025-26	kipptexas.org
KIPP Generations Collegiate	KIPP Texas	9-12 in 2025-26	kipptexas.org
KIPP Houston High School	KIPP Texas	9-12 in 2025-26	kipptexas.org
Harmony Science Academy Houston	Harmony	9-12A high school, at 9431 W Sam Houston S. An earlier sheet of ours had this campus as K-8.	hsahouston.harmonytx.org
Harmony School of Advancement Houston	Harmony	9-12At 3171 North Sam Houston W.	hsadvancement.harmonytx.org
Harmony School of Innovation Houston	Harmony	6-8A middle school. An earlier sheet of ours had this campus as 6-12.	hsihouston.harmonytx.org
Harmony Science Academy Sugar Land	Harmony	K-5At 13415 W Bellfort in Sugar Land, outside Houston.	hsasl.harmonytx.org
Harmony School of Innovation Katy	Harmony	8-12The name says Katy and the campus address is 21650 Bellaire in Richmond, a different city southwest of Houston. An earlier sheet of ours had this campus as K-12.	hsikaty.harmonytx.org
IDEA Spears	IDEA	K-12 in 2026-27At 2010 Spears Rd.	ideapublicschools.org
IDEA Hardy	IDEA	K-12 in 2026-27At 1930 Little York Rd.	ideapublicschools.org
IDEA Lake Houston	IDEA	K-11 in 2026-27The campus page does not say a 12th grade opens in 2027-28, so do not plan a senior year here without asking.	ideapublicschools.org
Houston Classical Charter School	Houston Classical	PK4-7 in 2026-27The school says it adds one grade level each year through 8th.	houstonclassical.org

Twenty campuses is a sample from our dated Houston source list. It is not every charter campus in Houston. Each of these networks runs more campuses than appear here, and other charter networks operate in the area. Use the network's own site for its full campus list.

How a charter lottery works

When more children apply than a campus has seats, the network draws at random. Harmony calls it a blind lottery, KIPP an automated random lottery, IDEA a random lottery by grade. The wording differs by network. In each case chance decides which applications are drawn.

None of the five networks publishes how many applications it received or how many seats it offered. We looked, and the numbers are not there. Without them nobody can work out a chance of a place, this page included, so be careful with any page that offers you one.

What this page is not

It is not a ranking. We do not rank schools or networks, here or anywhere on this site. A ranking implies a judgment about which school is better, and nothing on an application page supports that judgment. Test scores and ratings are published by others and measure different things. What the family in front of us needs first is which door to knock on and by when.

It is not a complete directory, and it is not advice about which network suits your child. Dates and rules change, sometimes mid-season. Before you act on any date here, open the network's own page and check it. If you find something on this page that has moved, send us the link and we will correct it and date the change.

How this page works

Every fact here comes from the network's own site, read on the date shown. We did not take any of it from an aggregator or a ratings service. Where a network has not published something, the page says not published rather than filling the gap with a guess or with last year's date. Research is AI-assisted and a person reviews it. No school or network pays us, and none can pay to appear here.

The $195 School Decision Report does this work for the specific campuses your family is weighing, including the deadline calendar, the commute and the questions worth asking each campus.

Audio details

AI-generated narration, listened to in full and approved by a person. Full rules and sources are in this guide.

Audio transcript

Alex & Jordan · 4 min 19 sec

Alex: Hi, I'm Alex. Welcome to School, Clearly.

Jordan: And I'm Jordan. We're your hosts. Today it's charter schools in Houston, and the thing that catches most families out. There isn't one application.

Alex: There are five. KIPP, YES Prep, Harmony, IDEA and Houston Classical each take their own application, on their own system, with their own deadline.

Jordan: So applying to one doesn't put my child in another one's lottery?

Alex: It doesn't. And the HISD School Choice application doesn't reach any of them. That one covers Houston ISD schools and programs. We read the HISD page on September eighth, twenty twenty-six, and it names no charter network.

Jordan: Four of the five use the same software though, don't they?

Alex: Four use SchoolMint and IDEA uses its own system, STREAM. The shared software doesn't merge anything. Each network still receives its own application.

Jordan: What about the older advice that points families to one shared charter application?

Alex: That address didn't load when we tried it on September eighth, twenty twenty-six. We're reporting a failed load on the day we checked it. We're not telling you the service ended.

Jordan: Let's do deadlines. The five-network table is the part I would screenshot.

Alex: Two of the five have posted something for twenty twenty-seven to twenty-eight. Three have not.

Jordan: Start with the two that have.

Alex: YES Prep opens October first, twenty twenty-six. The deadline is eleven fifty-nine at night on February thirteenth, twenty twenty-seven, and the lottery is February twenty-second.

Jordan: And there's a catch on that one.

Alex: An FAQ further down the very same page tells families to submit by February twelfth. Both dates were published when we read it. We are not picking one. Submit by the twelfth and you satisfy either reading.

Jordan: That's the honest way to handle it. What about IDEA?

Alex: Texas applications have been open since September first, twenty twenty-six, and the Greater Houston lottery is February twentieth, twenty twenty-seven. IDEA doesn't print a deadline date. It says the deadline is always eleven fifty-nine at night the day before the lottery, which puts it at February nineteenth.

Jordan: So that date follows from a rule rather than from a printed calendar.

Alex: It does, and the article says so beside the date.

Jordan: Then the three that haven't posted.

Alex: Harmony publishes a standing window instead of dates. November first to February tenth each year, or March fifteenth for a new campus, with the lottery within fifteen days of the deadline. KIPP and Houston Classical have posted nothing for twenty twenty-seven to twenty-eight. Their sites are still carrying the previous cycle, and a date that has closed is not a prediction of the next one.

Jordan: Transportation next, because that's the thing that quietly changes a shortlist.

Alex: It's answered five different ways. YES Prep bases service on distance, more than two miles from the campus whose zone includes your address. KIPP runs bus stops across the region, assigned from your home address, aiming to fall within two to three miles. IDEA publishes routes for each campus and asks families to register through PowerSchool. Houston Classical runs buses in the Alief area for families who fill in an interest form.

Jordan: And Harmony?

Alex: We found nothing about transportation on the network's own pages on the checked date. Where our table says not published, that means we could not find it. It does not mean there is no bus. Ask the campus.

Jordan: Here's the question every parent asks. What are the odds?

Alex: Nobody can tell you, and that includes us. None of the five networks publishes how many applications it received or how many seats it offered. We looked, and the numbers are not there. Without them no one can work out a chance of a place, so be careful with any page that offers you one.

Jordan: A lottery is random. That's the whole of it.

Alex: The campus table shows twenty campuses with their grade spans and each network's own source link. It's a sample from our Houston source list, not every charter campus in the city. It is not a ranking.

Jordan: Charter schools are tuition-free, so there's no cost arithmetic on this one.

Alex: None. If your shortlist also has private schools on it, the article links to our Texas Education Freedom Accounts net-tuition calculator for that side of the decision.

Jordan: You'll find the tables and the official links in Charter Schools in Houston at school clearly dot com.

Alex: We provide AI-assisted research and decision support. No school or network pays us for inclusion, referrals, or advertising. We don't guarantee admission, a seat, or any particular outcome. Your family owns the final decision.

Jordan: This is AI-generated narration. Thanks for listening with us. I'm Jordan.

Alex: And I'm Alex. Check the deadline for every network on your list, and start with the one that closes first.

Download the audio guide