Carlos Sanchez hugs his 8-year-old son, Shem, as he drops him off for his first day of third grade at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Samantha Yanes waved goodbye to her son, Johnny, as he walked into Casey Elementary School on Tuesday to start his first day of fifth grade.
“Ready to learn some cool stuff?” said Yanes, who also attended Casey.
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Miles Wheeles, 5, center, and his sister Matilda, 3, right, arrive with a friend for the first day of school at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Rhiannon Leshikar hugs her 5-year-old daughter, Lea, while Braden Latham says goodbye to his 5-year-old son, Hollis, before dropping them off for their first day of kindergarten at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Andrea Fuentes hugs her 8-year-old daughter, Amara Covarrubias, as she drops her off for her first day of third grade at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
First-grader Ayden Paez, 6, arrives for the first day of school at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Lindsay and Brandon Holley drop off their 4-year-old son, Cameron, for his first day of prekindergarten at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura helps a first-grader open his carton of milk on the first day of school at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura speaks to students on the first day of school at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
A sign for a bus hub is seen at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. The elementary school serves as a bis hub for Akins High School students.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Natasha Fields walks with her 16-year-old daughter, Noelle Lewis, a junior at Akins High School, to a bus hub at Casey Elementary School on the first day of school Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. Fields and Lewis walked 20 minutes from their home to the hub, which serves some Akins High School students.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Natasha Fields waits with her 16-year-old daughter, Noelle Lewis, a junior at Akins High School, at a bus hub at Casey Elementary School on the first day of school Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. Fields and Lewis walked 20 minutes from their home to the hub, which serves some Akins High School students.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
An Akins High School student boards a bus at a bus hub at Casey Elementary School on the first day of school Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura greets special education teacher Heidi Garcia on the first day of school at Langford Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura speaks to students on the first day of school at Langford Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura hugs fifth-grade teacher Sylvia Pompa on the first day of school at Langford Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Amanda Wheeless, left, and her mother-in-law, Jackie Wheeless, watch Amanda’s children enter Casey Elementary School for the first day of school on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura greets students on the first day of school at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
She was excited for her son’s last year of elementary school, but recent changes in Austin Independent School District have given her pause.
Weeks before classes started, Austin ISD abruptly closed Paredes Middle School, which her son would have attended in sixth grade.
“It has me looking at alternate school districts,” Yanes said. “I’m not opposed to moving if I have to.”
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Austin ISD families started the school year on Tuesday after a year marked by school closures, budget cuts and a growing threat of a districtwide state takeover.
Chronic academic failings at two middle schools — Burnet and Webb in North Austin — could prompt Education Commissioner Mike Morath to take over the entire district, replacing elected trustees and the superintendent with state appointees.
Lindsay and Brandon Holley drop off their 4-year-old son, Cameron, for his first day of prekindergarten at Casey Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Many families are also navigating change after Austin ISD this summer closed 11 campuses and cut the budget by $205 million in response to declining enrollment and growing costs. The district increased some class sizes, reduced teachers’ stipends and planning periods, cut about 580 positions and reduced transportation options, among other budget reductions.
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Nicholas Solis, who has a first-grade son at Casey, worries that more budget cuts may be coming that could lead to bigger class sizes. He also fears a state takeover of Austin ISD based on what he’s seen in Houston ISD, where state appointees have run the district since 2023.
A similar situation in Austin could push his family to look for options outside the district, he said. He doesn’t like that Houston ISD repurposed some libraries. The former libraries, or “team centers,” have been used in some schools as areas where students who perform well on daily quizzes can work while children who tested poorly receive additional instruction in the classroom.
“It’s not just about my kids,” Solis said. “It’s about all kids and making sure that all have a very good educational environment to grow in.”
As the school year began with uncertainties hanging overhead, Superintendent Matias Segura said his focus is on student achievement.
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“This year with the focus and the lack of that huge disruption, I am very, very confident that the outcomes that we’ve seen over the last few years continue to move in an accelerated rate in the right direction,” Segura said.
On Tuesday, Segura toured Bowie High School, where he graduated from in 1999, and recounted to students his own experiences of making friends in the hallways and playing sports. As students approached the high school’s entry, a sign bearing Segura’s 10th grade class photo beckoned students in.
During a visit to a history teacher Alejandro Garcia’s history classroom, Segura pointed to a poster of that said “1% better.”
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“One percent better every month, every year: it’ll have a huge impact on our city,” Segura told students. “Y’all are the reason we’re all here.”
Navigating change
Tuesday marked the first day at Casey Elementary for Steve Cargo and Sonia Gonzalez’s fourth grader Isabel. Last year, Isabel attended Becker Elementary, one of the 11 campuses that closed this summer.
Becker was part of the initial group of 10 schools that trustees voted to close in November to address plummeting enrollment and budget woes. The school board later approved shuttering Paredes in July after officials worried the school wouldn’t improve academic outcomes this year.
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Cargo and Gonzalez tried to take the change in stride.
“From an AISD-level, everything is changing day-to-day,” Cargo said. “For some parents, it still kind of is, so it’s hard to plan and make adjustments.”
Cargo and Gonzalez were grateful Isabel, whose first language is Spanish, can continue in a dual language program, similar to the one she was part of at Becker.
Transportation hubs
Akins High School students board a bus at a bus hub at Casey Elementary School on the first day of school Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
On Tuesday, Austin ISD also rolled out centralized bus stops, or “hubs,” for high school students, as part of a package of budget cuts. Texas only provides districts $1 for each mile a school bus travels and only funds transportation for students who live 2 miles or more away from their school, with some exceptions for hazardous walking routes. Austin ISD spends $7.22 per mile on student transportation.
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Austin ISD had previously funded the transportation for some students who lived closer than 2 miles to their school, but the district cut the service this year, with some exceptions for students who had to cross major highways.
High school students like Akins High junior Noelle Lewis walked to nearby elementary schools, fire stations or other community centers to get picked up by the bus. The stop, about a 20-minute walk from her house, isn’t ideal, Lewis said. She used to be picked up by the bus a few blocks away from home.
“I’m sweaty,” she said. “I feel like it’ll elongate the day. It’ll make the day longer than it needs to be.”
Her mother, Natasha Fields, took Tuesday morning off work so she could walk with Noelle to their closest bus hub at Casey Elementary. A bright yellow sign marked the pick-up area near the elementary school awning.
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Fields doesn’t like the idea of her daughter walking beside the busy, six-lane Slaughter Lane but also worried for Noelle’s safety on a city bus.
“For a long time, we were able to offer a dense network of neighborhood stops,” Segura said Tuesday. “In an effort to reduce our costs, so that our dollars stay in the classroom, we had to look at different ways to become more efficient with our transportation costs.”
Austin ISD expects to save $2.3 million from cuts to transportation.
Despite all the changes, many students were excited for the 2026-27 school year.
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Noelle looked forward to finishing her SAT test and to mock trial, a program that teaches students skills related to the legal profession.
Gonzalez hoped her daughter Isabel would feel welcomed at the school and that the family will settle into their new campus community.
“It’s going to be a change,” she said, “but hopefully (the students will) adapt.”
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