HISD Removes Race, Income and Disability From Gifted Student Criteria Despite Past ‘Rampant’ Inequity

Houston ISD will no longer use race, family income or disability as factors when identifying gifted-and-talented students, as school districts nationwide face federal pressure to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

The policy shift, which HISD’s state-appointed board of managers approved Thursday, came after years of reports showing that the district’s Black, Hispanic and low-income students have been underrepresented in its gifted-and-talented program. The Trump administration has also warned schools that don’t comply with its civil-rights directives could face investigations or lose federal funding, though HISD has not been targeted directly.

According to HISD’s new gifted-and-talented policy, any scoring value based on “race, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status or disability” will be prohibited.

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Black students made up 10.7% of HISD’s gifted-and-talented students in 2022-23 even though they represented 21.3% of the district’s total population. Hispanic and low-income students were also underrepresented, according to an HISD report.

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For decades, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights could investigate school districts if they were found to have policies that discriminated against a student group — even if the discrimination was unintentional — under a theory called disparate-impact liability.

But when President Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he signed an executive order eliminating the use of that standard, reversing more than 50 years of legal precedent. The civil rights office has since shifted its focus to investigate school districts it believes are shifting policies to actively reduce racial disparities.

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