HISD magnet and School Choice

HISD magnet schools: twenty campuses and their entry rules

By the research team at School, Clearly.

Reviewed by Eric Moore, founder.

AI-assisted research. Our method.

District pages and twenty campus pages read September 9, 2026. School years are stated beside every date.

At a glance

An HISD magnet school is a district school with a theme, such as STEM, fine arts, a language, Vanguard or an early college, that families apply to through the one HISD School Choice application. HISD says it offers magnet programming at 118 schools. This page lists twenty of them, a dated sample, with the grades each serves, its theme, whether you have to apply at all, and whether a test, audition or Gifted and Talented label comes before the lottery. Every campus name opens the campus page we read.

What an HISD magnet school is, and who has to apply

Magnet schools in Houston ISD offer a specialized curriculum or theme beyond the standard program. The district's magnet programs page, read September 9, 2026, groups them by level and theme: at elementary, fine arts, International Baccalaureate, languages, literature, Montessori, STEM and Vanguard; at middle school, fine arts, languages, medical careers, Montessori, single-gender college preparatory, STEM and Vanguard; at high school, academic and career early college, career and technical education, fine arts, languages, medical careers, single-gender college preparatory, STEM and Vanguard. HISD magnet schools are HISD public schools, so there is no tuition.

Whether your family has to apply depends on the school type, and HISD uses three. A Separate and Unique School (SUS) has no zoned students, so every student applies. At a School Wide Program (SWP) the whole campus is the magnet, so zoned students attend without applying and everyone else applies. At a School Within a School (SWS) the magnet is a program inside a zoned campus, and both zoned and non-zoned students apply for the program itself, while zoned students need no application for the general program. HISD adds that a student in grades 6 to 12 who wants a magnet program applies for it even when zoned to that school.

Every magnet school below takes the same HISD School Choice K-12 application, up to 10 ranked choices, filled in on the ChooseHISD portal. The phases, the lottery and the priorities are explained in our HISD magnet application guide. Houston's charter networks and private schools are outside this list and outside that application: each charter network runs its own application, and the three routes sit side by side in our magnet, charter and private comparison.

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Twenty campuses, by level

The rows below are the twenty HISD magnet campuses in our dated Houston source list, grouped by the grades they serve. Grades and theme come from each campus page, verified September 7 and re-read September 9, 2026. The school type is the district's own bracket on its magnet page. The entry rule is what the campus page states comes before the lottery, if anything. The last column is what the campus page adds that a family would want to know before ranking it. This is a sample of the 118, in no order of preference, and the district's page holds the rest.

Elementary and K-8

Campus, linked to the page we read	Grades and theme	Type	Before the lottery	What the campus page adds
Harvard Elementary School	K-5, STEM schoolwide magnet	SWP	Lottery only	Zoned students attend without applying; the page routes applicants to the School Choice site.
Kolter Elementary School	K-5, foreign languages and cultures magnet (Mandarin, French, Spanish)	SWP	Lottery only	Kindergartners rotate through all three languages, then choose one from grade 1. The page says no language testing is needed to be eligible.
Wharton K-8 Dual Language Academy	PK-8, Spanish dual language immersion, separate and unique school	SUS	Lottery only	HISD's dates page gives families in the former attendance zone lottery priority, with a further reservation for former zoned applicants who have a sibling at the school. The campus page still printed a superseded 2026-27 schedule on September 9, 2026.
Lovett Elementary School	PK-5, fine arts (music) schoolwide magnet	SWP	Lottery only	A daily 50-minute fine arts class for every student, with band, strings or vocal music from grade 1. No entry audition.
Mandarin Immersion Magnet School	PK-8, Mandarin immersion, separate and unique school	SUS	Lottery only	The campus page prints the 2027-28 window with a March 27, 2027 acceptance deadline under a 2026-27 heading; the district's dates page says March 23, 2027.
River Oaks Elementary School	K-5, Vanguard (gifted and talented) magnet inside a zoned school	SWS	Vanguard: Gifted and Talented identification	Requires identification in both areas, reading and social studies and math and science. Students from outside HISD send their documentation for district review. The campus has its own transportation request page.
T. H. Rogers School	K-8, Vanguard (gifted and talented) magnet, separate and unique school	SUS	Vanguard: Gifted and Talented identification	Does not offer Gifted and Talented testing on campus; HISD students test at their zoned school.

Middle school

Campus, linked to the page we read	Grades and theme	Type	Before the lottery	What the campus page adds
Pin Oak Middle School	6-8, world languages magnet plus boundary option, separate and unique school	SUS	Lottery only	Two lottery pathways: a magnet pathway open to any HISD address and a boundary pathway for families zoned to Pershing, Long or Meyerland. No matrix, and the page says the two pathways share the same courses.
Lanier Middle School	6-8, Vanguard (gifted and talented) magnet and IB Middle Years, entry at grade 6	SWS	Vanguard: Gifted and Talented identification	Vanguard admission is for grade 6 entry. The campus page prints the 2027-28 window without a school year label.
Hogg Middle School	6-8, STEM magnet inside a zoned school; grade 6 entry only for 2026-27	SWS	Lottery only	No qualifying matrix. For 2026-27 the page said it would take no new grade 7 or 8 magnet transfers. It still printed the 2026-27 dates on September 9, 2026.
Pershing Middle School	6-8, fine arts magnet with audition inside a zoned school	SWS	Audition	An audition or portfolio review in one or more art areas, each with four components; visual arts brings a portfolio and draws on the day.
Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School	6-8, performing and visual arts magnet, audition in two art areas, inside a zoned school	SWS	Audition	Applicants audition and qualify in two art areas, and the page asks families to book both audition dates before submitting the application.

High school

Campus, linked to the page we read	Grades and theme	Type	Before the lottery	What the campus page adds
DeBakey High School for Health Professions	9-12, health professions, separate and unique school; grade 9 entry, matrix 80, HISD residency	SUS	Academic Matrix score of 80	Applicants must live within HISD at the time of application. The page says an early submission gives no advantage, and that application-related email can continue into August.
Carnegie Vanguard High School	9-12, Vanguard (gifted and talented) magnet, separate and unique school; entry grades 9 and 10, GT plus matrix 80	SUS	Vanguard: Gifted and Talented identification, plus a matrix of 80	Three conditions: HISD Gifted and Talented identification, a matrix of 80 or higher, and HISD residency. Grades 9 and 10 only. The page, read September 9, 2026, says HISD now tests for Gifted and Talented only students currently enrolled in an HISD school.
Bellaire High School	9-12, world languages magnet inside a zoned school; grade 9 entry, matrix 80, non-zoned students only	SWS	Academic Matrix score of 80	The magnet is for students outside Bellaire's attendance zone. Applicants choose one of eight languages, kept for all four years, or one of five career and technical pathways.
Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts	9-12, performing and visual arts, separate and unique school; six art areas, audition required	SUS	Audition	Auditions run through the Acceptd platform alongside the School Choice application, with callbacks by invitation. On September 9, 2026 the page described only the 2026-27 audition cycle; the 2027-28 audition calendar was not posted.
Challenge Early College High School	9-12, early college, separate and unique school	SUS	None stated on the campus page	The admissions page names no matrix, audition or other requirement and prints the 2027-28 window labeled 2027-2028, but it says little about eligibility at all. Confirm with the campus before relying on that.
East Early College High School	9-12, early college with Houston City College, separate and unique school	SUS	Lottery only	A high school diploma plus up to 60 college credit hours from Houston City College. The page still printed a superseded 2026-27 schedule on September 9, 2026.
Energy Institute High School	9-12, energy and engineering STEM, separate and unique school; grade 9 entry, matrix 75	SUS	Academic Matrix score of 75	Grade 9 entry each year, with a few sophomores and juniors case by case. The page prints the 2027-28 window labeled 2027-2028.
High School for Law and Justice	9-12, law and justice early college, separate and unique school	SUS	None stated on the campus page	The official site confirms grades 9 to 12 and the early college label and states no entry requirement; its magnet detail sits on a non-official site, so confirm eligibility with the campus.

Twenty of 118. The sample was chosen on September 4, 2026 to cover every level and entry rule, and it is printed here in sheet order within each level, which is no order of preference. Where a campus page says one thing and the district's central page another, the row shows both. Send us the link if a campus page has moved and we will correct the row and date the change.

Before the lottery: the four entry rules

Ten of the twenty campus pages above state no test, audition or Gifted and Talented requirement, so an application that meets the grade and residency rules goes into the Phase 1 draw; two of those ten, Challenge Early College and the High School for Law and Justice, say little about eligibility at all, and the table says so. The other ten check something first, and HISD's eligibility page, read September 9, 2026, names four kinds. An Academic Matrix scores the final report card from the previous school year with test scores; a 9th grade applicant uploads the 7th grade card. Auditions apply to secondary fine arts programs, and Kinder HSPVA runs its own outside the School Choice form. Montessori programs need prior Montessori experience from grade 3. Vanguard needs Gifted and Talented identification in all assessment areas, and Carnegie Vanguard also needs a matrix of 80. The 2026-27 matrix rubric is linked from that page; no 2027-28 rubric was posted on September 9, 2026. Clearing the rule puts a student into the lottery with everyone else who cleared it. How the draw, the priorities and the waitlists then work is in the application guide.

The dates that apply to every school on this page

On September 9, 2026 the district's K-12 Application Dates and Process page carried a tab labeled Future Year 2027-2028 for the first time. These are HISD's published dates for the coming cycle, and they apply to all twenty campuses above because all twenty use the School Choice application.

Step	2027-28 cycle, published on the district page
Phase 1 application opens	December 8, 2026
Phase 1 closes; rankings and documents final	February 12, 2027
Lottery notifications; Phase 2 opens	March 17, 2027
Deadline to accept a March 17 offer	March 23, 2027
Later offers	5 calendar days from the offer
Phase 2 closes for current HISD students	One week before school opens

Read September 9, 2026. The dates page is the one central source so far: the ChooseHISD portal landing still described the 2026-27 Phase 2 that day, and the School Choice news list carried no 2027-28 post. Campus pages mostly agree; the Mandarin Immersion page gives March 27, 2027 for the acceptance deadline where the district gives March 23, and two campus pages still print a superseded 2026-27 schedule. Use the district page. A family that misses Phase 1 still has Phase 2, which our Phase 2 guide covers. Pre-K has its own application and its own dates.

Getting there

For the 2026-27 school year, HISD provides bus transportation to a student attending a school of choice who lives at least two miles from that school and holds a qualifying transfer code, which includes the Magnet code. The district's magnet program page says a magnet student may be eligible for free transportation with a home at least two miles from the school and within Houston ISD boundaries; the School Choice transportation page's 2026-27 criteria, read September 10, 2026, do not mention boundaries, so a family living outside the district should ask HISD. Our HISD bus guide covers the 2026-27 request a family files to get a bus and where a stop is likely to be. The district's School Choice transportation page, updated December 9, 2025, says stops may be three miles or more from home and are likely to be at other HISD schools, and that most families should expect to drive to the stop. No transportation is provided for Pre-K students without a related service in an IEP (an Individualized Education Program, the public school special education plan) or 504 plan, or for Space Available, Dual Language or Hardship transfer codes. No 2027-28 transportation rule had been posted on September 10, 2026.

What HISD does not publish

HISD does not publish how many applications each magnet school or program received, so no one can honestly tell you a school's chance of a seat, and this page does not try. A few campus pages publish how many seats they offer at an entry grade; none publishes the applications for those seats, and we do not print one half of a ratio. The only compilation we have seen with both numbers is a third party's and is unconfirmed against HISD's records. School, Clearly requested the counts from HISD under the Texas Public Information Act on September 8, 2026; the ten business days the request cites run to September 22, 2026. Until HISD's own record arrives, no figure appears on this site.

What this page is not

It is not the full list. HISD names 118 schools with magnet programming, and the district's magnet programs page holds every one by level and theme. It is not a ranking: the twenty are in sheet order within each level, and nothing here says one school is better than another. It is not a statement of your child's chances, because HISD publishes nothing that would let anyone make one. Rules and dates on campus pages change, sometimes after a page is printed, as three rows above show. Before you rank a school, open its page from the table and read it yourself.

How this page works

Every row comes from the campus's own page and the district's School Choice pages, read on the dates shown, and every printed name, link, grade span and entry rule is checked against our dated source list before publication so a changed row cannot leave a stale value here. Research is AI-assisted and a person reviews it before publication. No school pays us, and none can pay to appear here. Our method explains the checks in full.

The $195 School Decision Report does this work for the specific schools your family is weighing, magnet, charter or private, including which of your choices carry an entrance requirement, the calendar that applies to each, and the questions worth asking each campus. See if this report fits your family.

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 · 5 min 16 sec

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

Jordan: And I'm Jordan. We're your hosts. Today we're walking through the Houston Independent School District's magnet schools, and specifically a list of twenty of them that we checked campus by campus.

Alex: Let's start with the word itself. A magnet school in this district is a public school with a theme. Science and technology, fine arts, a language like Mandarin or Spanish, an early college program, or Vanguard, which is the gifted and talented program. Same district, no tuition, and one application for all of them.

Jordan: How many are there?

Alex: The district says it offers magnet programming at one hundred and eighteen schools. Our page lists twenty. That's a sample we chose to cover every grade level and every kind of entry rule, and the article says so more than once. It is not a ranking, and the district's own page has the full list.

Jordan: So what does our list add, if the district already has one?

Alex: Five things on one row. The grades the campus serves, its theme, what the district calls the school type, whether a test or audition or gifted label comes before the lottery, and a note about what the campus page itself adds. And every campus name is a link to the exact campus page we read.

Jordan: Let's take the school type, because I think that's the one parents skip past.

Alex: It's the one that decides whether you have to apply at all. The district uses three. A Separate and Unique School has nobody zoned to it, so every single student applies. A School Wide Program means the whole campus is the magnet. If you're zoned there, your child attends without applying. Everyone else applies.

Jordan: And the third one?

Alex: A School Within a School. The magnet is a program inside a regular zoned campus. Zoned and non-zoned students both apply for the program. A zoned student who just wants the regular program doesn't apply for anything. And the district adds one more rule. In sixth through twelfth grade, a student who wants the magnet program applies for it even when they're zoned to that school.

Jordan: Now the column I'd look at second. What comes before the lottery.

Alex: Half of the twenty are lottery only. If your child meets the grade and residency rules, the application goes into the draw. The other half check something first. Some high school programs use an academic matrix, a score built from the previous year's final report card and test scores. Fine arts programs at the secondary level hold an audition. And the Vanguard programs require a Gifted and Talented identification in every area.

Jordan: Give me an example of each from the table.

Alex: Pin Oak Middle School is lottery only, and the campus page says plainly there is no matrix. DeBakey High School for Health Professions requires a matrix score of eighty and residency in the district. Meyerland Middle School has an audition in two art areas. And Carnegie Vanguard High School needs the gifted identification and a matrix of eighty, and only takes ninth and tenth graders.

Jordan: The table is split into elementary, middle and high school.

Alex: Seven in the elementary and kindergarten-through-eighth group, five middle schools, eight high schools. Grouped by the grades they serve, and inside each group they're in the order they sit in our source list. That is not an order of preference.

Jordan: Now, dates. Something changed while we were building this.

Alex: It did. When we read the district's own calendar page on September ninth, twenty twenty-six, it carried the dates for the twenty twenty-seven to twenty twenty-eight school year for the first time. Phase one opens December eighth, twenty twenty-six, and closes February twelfth, twenty twenty-seven. Lottery notifications go out March seventeenth, and a family has until March twenty-third to accept an offer made that day.

Jordan: And that applies to every school on the list.

Alex: Every one, because every one uses the same School Choice application. The article carries the full table. One caution. A couple of campus pages still print an older schedule, and one prints a different acceptance deadline. Use the district's page.

Jordan: What about buses?

Alex: For the twenty twenty-six to twenty twenty-seven year, the district provides transportation to a magnet school if you live at least two miles away and inside district boundaries. The stop may be three miles or more from your home, usually at another district school, and the district says most families should expect to drive to the stop.

Jordan: Here's what listeners will be waiting for. Which schools are hardest to get into?

Alex: We can't say, and we don't. The district doesn't publish how many applications each school gets. A few campus pages publish how many seats they offer, but none publishes the applications for those seats, and we won't print half of a ratio. We requested the counts under the Public Information Act on September eighth, twenty twenty-six. Until the district's own record arrives, no rate appears anywhere on our site.

Jordan: And if a family missed phase one?

Alex: Phase two opens on notification day, and we have a separate guide for that path. Pre-kindergarten has its own application and its own calendar.

Jordan: You'll find the twenty-campus table, the entry rules and the district links in our Houston Independent School District magnet schools guide at school clearly dot com.

Alex: We provide AI-assisted research and decision support. No school 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. Open the campus page before you rank the school, and check the district's own calendar page before you count on any date.

Download the audio guide