While enrollment is lower than school leaders would like, Frisco ISD’s Access Frisco program, which allows out-of-district transfer students, is expected to generate approximately $1.5 million in income during the 2025-26 school year.
Beginning this school year, Access Frisco will allow kids in kindergarten through seventh grade from surrounding communities to attend FISD schools.
FISD’s chief finance and strategy officer, Kimberly Smith, stated in an email that the 183 Access Frisco students enrolled this year will generate approximately $1.5 million. She also stated that the district will maintain an additional $950,000 in revenue for the pupils it retained through its new transfer possibilities.
Overall, the district’s open enrollment and additional transfer possibilities generated approximately $2.45 million in revenue for the operational budget.
An overview
The district presently has 304 total out-of-district students for the 2025-26 school year. According to Albert Leal, general director of student services at FISD, this comprises 183 Access Frisco kids, four grandparent transfer students, and 115 legacy transfer students.
The district offers the following out-of-district transfer options:
Grandparent transfers are offered to kids in grades K-9 who have a grandparent living inside the district borders.
Legacy transfer is offered to kids who relocate out of the district and have attended FISD for at least one academic year.
Virtual learning is for students who want to attend full-time online school or have a flexible hybrid schedule. The initiative is still being reviewed by district staff and may begin in the 2026-27 school year.
“Since enrollment is our primary source of revenue, serving new students will help to maintain the quality programming and instruction provided by FISD and offset any downturns in enrollment numbers,” according to Leal.
Dive in deeper
Prior to the start of the school year, the district had around 900 open seats across all schools from kindergarten to seventh grade.
In early 2025, the program received more than 600 applications. While district officials had hoped for more initial enrollment, Leal stated that the first rollout taught authorities how to make the process easier for families and enhance the whole application process for the next school year.
Fuller classrooms allow students to fully benefit from a lively school environment, according to Sara Bagby, principle of Sonntag Elementary School, one of Access Frisco’s 16 sites.
“Students feel supported, inspired and excited to learn when they are part of a dynamic environment where every child is valued and encouraged to grow,” Bagby told me.
What to expect
According to Leal, district officials are analyzing the program’s scope and determining which schools or grade levels can benefit from the Access Frisco program. The application window for Access Frisco is planned to start in the late fall or early spring semester of the 2026–27 academic year.
