Original Research by School Decision on Community Services-sec
Community Services-SEC is an alternative school within Houston ISD, serving prekindergarten through grade twelve from an address on Telephone Road in the east Houston zip code 77023. Its enrollment is small, and the grade distribution tells the essential story of the place: the vast majority of students are in ninth and tenth grade, with only a handful scattered across the elementary and middle grades and a very thin presence in eleventh and twelfth. This pattern is common in alternative settings that serve students who have left or been separated from a traditional campus and are working to stay connected to schooling.
Because the school's tested groups are too small for Texas to release proficiency data by subject at the grade level, virtually all the STAAR results are either suppressed or missing. The one aggregate figure available across all subjects and grade levels shows a majority of students reaching the approaches-grade-level threshold, but the meets-grade-level rate is considerably lower, and the masters rate is essentially nil. These figures need to be read with real caution: the tested population at any single grade is extremely small, sometimes just one or two students, which is why the state suppresses the individual breakdowns. Parents should reach out to the school directly to understand what academic programming looks like in practice and how students progress toward a diploma, since the state testing picture alone tells very little here.
A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, pointing to a high-need population by income. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with Black and white students each representing meaningful shares. Data on English learner and special education rates was not available in what was provided.
Program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance data were not available for this school. A graduation rate was not reported in the data. Given the grade distribution and the alternative designation, parents would want to ask the school directly about its credit-recovery pathways, the structure of the school day, how students are referred or enrolled, and what the typical pathway to a diploma looks like for students who arrive behind in credits.
The broader district context matters here. Houston ISD has been under Texas Education Agency control since mid-2023, with an appointed board of managers replacing the elected board, and that arrangement is publicly reported to run through at least mid-2027. The district has rolled out a standardized instructional model called the New Education System across a growing number of campuses, featuring scripted lessons, timed quizzes, and longer school days. Whether and how that model applies to an alternative campus like this one is not clear from the data available. The district's voters rejected a large bond measure in late 2024, leaving aging facilities without the planned funding for repairs and upgrades. The district has also seen notable enrollment declines since the takeover began, leading to school closures and consolidations that are ongoing.
The school sits in a zip code where home values have declined modestly year over year and where asking prices sit below both the Texas statewide midpoint and the national midpoint, making the immediate area relatively accessible by Houston standards. The Harris County market broadly has plenty of active inventory and homes are sitting longer than they were a year ago, giving buyers more negotiating room than was common in recent years.
Community Services-SEC is not a general-enrollment neighborhood school. It serves a specific population, and a family arriving here through ordinary school assignment would be an unusual case. For families whose student has been referred to or is considering this setting, the most useful next step is a direct conversation with the school about enrollment, academic structure, and what support looks like for students working toward a diploma.
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