ECISD Enrollment Numbers Show 1.7% Drop, But Most Transfers From Other Districts In Region: 1,897
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated to show the correct text that goes with the headline. We apologize for any confusion due to the error.
Arnoldo Mata
EDINBURG TX – Edinburg CISD saw a modest year-over-year drop in student enrollment, but district leaders say strong retention and internal mobility reflect continued confidence in ECISD schools. The data also shows that Edinburg CISD has enrolled 1,898 from outside the district, the highest in the Valley.
During the April 8th school board meeting, PEIMS and Pupil Accounting Director Freddy Martinez presented the 2024–25 Enrollment Comparison Report, analyzing enrollment figures from April 4, 2025—the 142nd instructional day of the current school year—against the same date in 2024.
District-wide enrollment stands at 33,330 students, down by 576 compared to the same day last year. Elementary campuses saw a decrease of 293 students, while secondary campuses declined by 283.
Despite the overall drop, Martinez noted that much of the change reflects students graduating or transferring between ECISD schools rather than leaving the district. This internal movement, he said, indicates strong loyalty to the district in the face of regional challenges.
“We’re seeing students stay within ECISD, which says a lot about our campuses, staff, and support systems,” Martinez said. “Even though there’s a decline, it’s significantly less than what surrounding districts are experiencing.”
Martinez cited updated state data showing that while ECISD has seen a 1.5% enrollment decrease since before the pandemic, neighboring districts have seen drops as high as 13%. He also noted that ECISD faces unique enrollment pressure, with nine charter schools operating in its service area—more than any other district in Hidalgo County.
In a positive sign, the district has enrolled 216 students this year who had never previously attended ECISD schools. The number of migrant students withdrawing during the year currently stands at 120, and the cumulative migrant enrollment percentage remains steady at 3.76%.
An updated version of the enrollment report, presented at the meeting, included new data on first-time in-district transfers—students who transferred between ECISD campuses for the first time. Some campuses experienced gains from these movements, while others saw a net loss. For example, Avila Elementary saw a net gain of 18 students, while Betts Elementary saw a net loss of two.
Board members praised the district’s efforts to maintain enrollment and retain students despite external pressures, highlighting the work of educators, support staff, and administrators across ECISD.
“The fact that we’re keeping students in our schools, even with so many outside options, speaks volumes about what we’re doing here,” Board Member Dominga Vela said.
Board member Xavier Salinas asked that Martinez add another column to note the number of emergent bilinguals per campus. ”I would like to see the correlation between the bilingual emergent and the grade of the campus,” Salinas said. “I’d like to see if they’re an A, B, C, D or F campus. I want to see if that bilingual emergent correlates to the grade of that campus, because I’ve been saying, Dr. Salinas, all year long that we need to do something to address the 11,705 bilingual emergents that we have in order for us to get to the standard that we want to be at.”
“We should have been working with these 11,000 kids from day one because these are the kids are going to make us or break us when it comes to accountability. So, Austin is an ‘A’; they have 85. Avila is an ‘A’; they have 359 bilingual emergents. So we know that maybe we don’t have to focus on those schools as much as other bilingual emergent numbers that are higher so we can know how we can provide the support. I just think it’d be helpful, Mr. President and Dr. Salinas, to add that extra column just to seek correlations.
Martinez also pointed out how well Edinburg CISD is doing compared to other districts, according to recently available state-level data. ” It gives us an opportunity to just look not only at ourselves but our surrounding districts. And I’m very happy to say that the decrease that we see is really a blessing in comparison to other districts. If you look at the numbers right before pre pandemic to now, well until last year, we’re at a minus 1.5%,” Martinez explained.
“We have one district that lost 7.4% in that short timeframe, one district lost 10%, another one lost 13%. So when you compare those high percentage differences to ours, we are doing very well, also considering the fact that we have nine charter schools in our backyard, in our territory. I believe that’s the highest, in Hidalgo County.”
Superintendent Dr. Mario Salinas add more context to Martinez’s comment. “According to he latest information from Region One (ESC), Edinberg CISD has 1,898 students, pre-K to 12, that do not live in Edinburgh, the most of any school district in the Valley, charter or public schools.” The Board members, staff and people in attendance broke out in applause at that revelation.