Geographic Data

The Texas Education Agency collects maps and legal descriptions of school district boundaries under Section 13.010 of the Texas Education Code.

Several years ago, the TEA worked with the Texas Legislative Council to digitize school district boundaries. The agencies used the information provided by school districts in conjunction with county-level Department of Transportation (TxDOT) maps to transfer the boundaries from paper to computer.

Geographic data for schools was created by the Information Technology Division to enhance TEA mapping applications and for general information purposes. The source of the data is the Texas Education Directory maintained by TEA.

Accuracy of School District Boundaries

While continuous efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of school district boundaries, it must be stressed that the boundariesin the digital maps available through TEA are approximations of actual school district boundaries and are for general information purposes only.School District Locator should not be used to attempt determination of a school attendance zones or legal boundaries. To verify legal descriptions of boundaries or to determine school attendance, please contact the school districts.

The accuracy of the digital boundary data is determined by several factors, including the scale of the maps and accuracy of the legal descriptions provided by school districts, the standards used to digitize the boundaries, and the scale of the TxDOT maps used in the digitizing process, which in most cases was 1 inch: 1 mile, or about 1:63,000.

School district boundary data is updated annually. 2009-2010 data has been updated in the School District Locator site as of July 2010 and is effective for the 2010-2011 school year.

Accuracy of School Locations

The last major update of schools geographic data was in July 2010. School districts are responsible for providing accurate physical addresses for schools by submitting address to the Texas Education Directory. When a valid physical address is not provided, the mailing address is used. Geographic school data is then created using address matching software, and in some casesis verified against digital orthography photos, or other maps. Approximately 10% of all schools could not be matched to a street location.

School locations provided in mapping applications by TEA are approximate and are for general information purposes only.Although the locations are being continuously updated, there is a certain lag time between actual changes (for example a new school) and when the data is updated. If a discrepancy is noted, the user should then consult the school address listing among the school district data, or contact the school or school district for more information. For school officials, if discrepancies are found, please Contact Us, along with updating the physical address in the Texas Education Online Directory.

Non-Geographic Data and Other TEA Data Sources

School district and school information from the Texas Education Directory is listed when a district is selected in the School District Locator.

Additional non-geographic data for school districts and schools can be obtained from the Texas Education Online Directory. Data can be matched to a school by the field called 'CAMPUS' or 'School Number', which is a unique identifier for each school.

Performance reports and other statisticaldata can be found at the TEA Performance Reporting website.