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This To the Administrator Addressed letter announces the competitive opportunity for the 2026-2028 Local Accountability Plan Grant. The Request for Applications (RFA) is available on the .

Background

House Bill (HB) 22, passed by the 85th Texas Legislature in 2017, established the Local Accountability System (LAS), empowering school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to design local accountability plans for their campuses. Effectively, a school system adopting a Local Accountability Plan develops its own custom version of an A-F rating methodology for its campuses.

The Local Accountability Plan Grant, authorized under Texas Education Code (TEC), §39.0544(f), as added by HB 8, 89th Texas Legislature, Second Called Session, 2025, provides resources, including funding and technical assistance, to help at least one district in each Education Service Center (ESC) region develop a local accountability plan.

Through this grant, awarded school systems will receive:

• Financial support for plan development and implementation, including data systems, professional development, stakeholder engagement, and innovative improvement strategies; and
• Targeted technical assistance from expert Technical Advisors with proven experience in local accountability frameworks and best practices.

A school system’s Local Accountability System is designed to:

• Provide parents, families, and communities with detailed information about local school performance and progress over time;
• Communicate local priorities and demonstrate a commitment to achieving the components in the local plan;
• Signify the importance of local goals by publicly releasing LAS ratings; and
• Measure what is important to your community by including locally designed and selected indicators that count for up to half of each campuses A-F rating.

Since the passage of HB 22 in 2017, there has been discussion regarding the potential for additional indicators to be included in Texas’ academic accountability system. Current statewide data collections allow for only a limited number of indicators to be incorporated into ratings for every school system. But school systems are well-positioned to evaluate themselves on additional indicators using locally available data and incorporate these indicators into Local Accountability Systems. Some potential examples of Local Accountability System indicators include: K-3 early literacy student success; extra and co-curricular success; student leadership, communication and engagement; athletics and physical fitness; and parent satisfaction.

Developing the operational systems to do this in a reliable way with valid data is a challenging endeavor. In addition to the necessary diligence to identify and collect data for local indicators, when adding local indicators to the A-F rating system, the result could be ratings that are both higher and lower than A -F ratings otherwise produced using the standard statewide methodology.  

With regard to extra and co-curricular success, the Â鶹ԭ´´ released the Extracurricular and Cocurricular Student Activity Accountability Indicator Study as required by HB 22, which addressed the feasibility of incorporating an extracurricular and co-curricular student activity indicator into A-F ratings statewide. 

The legislature has since established the Local Accountability Plan Grant to support school systems interested in pursuing this locally driven approach to develop innovative ways to evaluate campus performance in a valid, reliable way using additional indicators that measure school outcomes.  

The Local Accountability Plan Grant supports this development, which generally follows a two-year process: 

• Year 1: Planning, meaningful community engagement, and collection of baseline data.
• Year 2: Approval by the governing board and Â鶹ԭ´´, implementation of the plan, continued data collection and reporting of campus local accountability ratings. 

Districts and open-enrollment charter schools that have already engaged stakeholders and established baseline data may proceed directly to Year 2.

Grant Overview

The Â鶹ԭ´´ released a new competitive application for the Local Accountability Plan Grant on Monday, April 27th, 2026. Awarded applicants will receive funding for the Local Accountability Plan beginning in the 2026-27 school year.

Eligible Entities

School systems, including independent school districts (ISDs) and open-enrollment charter schools.

Grant Period

Total Project Period: July 29, 2026, through April 30, 2028.

Funding Details

Approximately $5,000,000 is available for this grant program, and it is anticipated that approximately 20 grants will be awarded. Grant awards are expected to be $250,000 per school system, which includes $80,000 in-kind Technical Assistance.

Selection of Applicants for Funding

One award will be issued to the highest-scoring applicant in each ESC region. Any remaining funds will be awarded to additional applicants in rank order according to review scores. 

Future LAS Grant Opportunities

Following the close of this grant, subsequent Local Accountability Plan grants will be offered in upcoming LASO cycles, beginning with LASO 5 in October 2026.

Next Steps

Interested organizations should review the RFA and full timeline on the . More information on LAS can be found on Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s LAS webpage.

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. (Central Time), June 26, 2026, to be considered for funding. Â鶹ԭ´´ will only accept applications submitted via the eGrants system. All applying organizations must have or obtain Â鶹ԭ´´L and eGrants accounts to apply for this opportunity. See the Program Guidelines for this opportunity for more information.

For questions, contact LAS@tea.texas.gov.