EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Both El Paso and Socorro Independent School District staff carried out door-to-to door home visits with students who have not returned to their school for the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.
EPISD’s door-to-door outreach initiative called “Operation Search” and SISD’s “Walk for Success” were carried out simultaneously Saturday morning on Sep. 20, by school and district administrators, teachers and counselors.
These initiatives are part of each district’s own campaign to reconnect with students who have not re-enrolled in their district, or who have been absent multiple times this school year.
The goal behind the efforts is to figure out why students aren’t at school and how they can get them back in the classroom.
“We’re not here just to tell students, ‘Hey, make sure you come back to school.’ When they do open the door for us, we take the opportunity to ask them, ‘What can we do to accommodate your needs?’ said Michael Najera, president of SISD’s Board of Trustees.
“If we only bring back one student, if we connect with one student, that’s a success already,” said Martha Aguirre, interim superintendent for EPISD. “There is always an opportunity or a resource available to students, regardless of at what point or stage of their educational career they are. If they have fallen behind in credits, we have services and opportunities for those as well.”
According to EPISD officials, they identified 654 students or “leavers” who were enrolled at the district last year, but did not enroll this year.
Meanwhile, SISD officials said they identified 550 students/families who did not re-enroll at the beginning of this school year. Prior to Saturday’s outreach, officials said they were able to re-enroll 123 out of those students through phone-call outreach efforts.
District officials said that many of the students who did not return to their schools may have just moved away with their families, or decided to pursue their education elsewhere.
They said students who are chronically absent or have decided to drop out of school usually do so for different reasons.
“Maybe, the school they were at wasn’t for them. Maybe, they wanted a smaller setting, like Options High School or a dropout recovery school? Sometimes they just need a change of setting,” SISD Superintendent James Vasquez said.
“The more days they miss, the more difficult it is to catch up. And I think that’s why a lot of students get discouraged. They’ve missed so much school that they feel it’s impossible to ever catch up. But there are ways that we can help them,” Vasquez said.
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