HISD pre-K: eligibility, tuition and application dates

What it costs if your child does not qualify

A child who meets none of the eight routes can still attend HISD pre-K where a seat is open, on tuition. HISD's Pre-K Enrollment page, read September 9, 2026, gives the 2026-27 tuition rate as $7,419 for the year, paid either as one payment due August 10 or as 9 payments of $824 from September to May, due on the first business day of each month. No 2027-28 rate had been published on that date; a family applying in the January 2027 window should expect the figure to be restated for the new year.

Tuition seats come after free seats. The district's Pre-K Application Dates and Process page says that a pre-K 4 child who is not eligible, and every pre-K 3 child, is placed on the waitlist automatically in Phase 1 so that seats are offered by the state's priority, and that Phase 2 begins once all eligible pre-K 4 children have been offered seats. Its Phase 2 row prints the order in which remaining seats are offered: PreK4 Non-Tuition, PreK4 Tuition, PreK3 Non-Tuition, PreK3 Tuition. A four year old who qualifies for free pre-K is at the front of that line; a three year old on tuition is at the back. Whether a tuition seat exists at a particular campus depends on space, which the district does not publish in advance.

How the two phases work for pre-K

Everyone starting HISD pre-K for the first time must submit an application, including a family that wants only its zoned school. That differs from kindergarten, where a zoned child is enrolled automatically. A pre-K 3 child already enrolled does not reapply to stay at the same school as a pre-K 4, and a pre-K 4 child at one of the district's seven separate and unique magnet schools moves into kindergarten there without a new application; both rules are on the district's Pre-K Resources page.

The application takes up to 10 ranked choices. The dates page says to rank in true order of preference and that you must select your zoned Pre-K school as #1 to receive its priority. It says listing fewer schools does not increase your chance at any one of them, and that its Early Childhood Centers are open to every applicant and worth including. It describes four situations a family may see when it applies: a zoned school expected to have room for every zoned child; a zoned school expected to need a lottery, where the district recommends ranking other choices; the same with an off-site partnership in the zone that can be ranked; and a zoned school with no pre-K, where the child receives priority in the lottery at every other program.

Phase 1 is the lottery, held after the window closes. Its result on notification day, May 4, 2027 for the coming cycle, is an offer to families whose child is potentially eligible for free pre-K 4. The district says the Texas Education Agency does not allow eligibility verification to begin before April 1, so the offered seat is held while the documents uploaded from April 1 are checked; if the child turns out not to be eligible, the seat is removed and the application moves to Phase 2. Every other applicant, meaning pre-K 3 children and pre-K 4 children who are not eligible, is waitlisted automatically and considered in Phase 2 for remaining seats on a tuition or space-available basis, in the priority order above. An offer must be accepted within 5 calendar days. In Phase 2 a family may add itself to waitlists that Phase 1 created, seats are offered in order of state eligibility as space opens, current HISD students can no longer apply once the phase closes, and the waitlists retire at its end. Applying does not give up a child's current seat; the district says a seat is given up only when a different one is accepted.

The lottery mechanics themselves, and what a family can do after the notification, follow the K-12 pattern: our Phase 2 guide explains first come, first served and the one-position waitlist rule, and the district's pre-K page uses the same terms.

The school day: no bus, and what the district asks of a three year old

HISD's School Choice transportation page, in its 2026-27 wording updated December 9, 2025 and read September 9, 2026, says the district does not transport Pre-K 3 or Pre-K 4 students, regardless of transfer code, unless the student has an IEP/504 plan (an Individualized Education Program, the public school special education plan, or a Section 504 plan) and receives transportation as a related service. So the two-mile bus rule that applies to a magnet transfer in the older grades does not reach pre-K at all, and a pre-K choice outside the zoned campus means a family drive both ways for the whole year. That is the first thing to check against a work schedule before ranking a campus across town.

Two smaller points from the enrollment page. Potty training is not required, though the district encourages it and says it will provide help during the transition. And the child's residency must be inside HISD boundaries. Aftercare is a campus matter that the district's pre-K pages do not describe; ask each campus what it offers for pre-K and until what time, because a full school day for a three year old still ends before most work days do.

Private pre-K and the state's education savings account

The Texas Education Freedom Accounts program can fund a private pre-K or kindergarten provider, but its families page, read September 9, 2026, says a child aged 3 to 5 is eligible for a pre-K or kindergarten placement under the program only if the child meets the statute's conditions for free public pre-K, the same seven conditions behind the routes printed above. A child who meets none of those conditions cannot use the account for private pre-K either. The program's schools page says a participating pre-K provider must be licensed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and meet one of five standards, including a Texas Rising Star three-star certification or an accreditation the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission recognizes. On the read date the program said it was no longer accepting applications for 2026-27 and offered a 2027-28 interest list. Our TEFA guide covers the program, and our private schools list shows which of twenty Houston private schools start at pre-K and what they charge.

Seeing a campus before you rank it

The resources page says families can tour campuses every Thursday at 9 a.m. during February and March, in wording still written for the 2026 cycle when read, and it lists pre-K festivals and virtual parent sessions for the lottery notifications, all with 2026 dates that had passed. Expect the same page to carry 2027 dates once the January window approaches. The Early Childhood Department answers application questions at EarlyChildhood@houstonisd.org and 713-556-4393.

What this page is not

It is not a statement of your child's chance at any campus. HISD publishes neither pre-K application counts nor seat counts by campus, and this page prints none. It is not an eligibility determination: the district and the state decide whether a child qualifies for free pre-K, from the documents you upload. It is not the district's page: dates, the tuition rate and the income chart change by year, so before you act on any of them open the dates page and check. If you find something that has moved, send us the link and we will correct it and date the change.

How this page works

Every rule, date and figure here comes from HISD's pre-K pages, the district's income chart, the Texas Education Agency's pre-K pages and the state's education savings account pages, read on the date shown and quoted in their words wherever a rule carries a condition. Where the district's pages disagree with each other, the page says so. 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 campuses your family is weighing, from a zoned pre-K to a language magnet to a private provider: which of them your child can reach, what each would cost your household, the drive at drop-off and pickup, and the date that applies to each. See if this report fits your family.