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2026 Alternative Education Accountability Registration Open

This correspondence informs school systems that Alternative Education Accountability (AEA) registration for 2026 A-F Accountability Ratings will open on March 5, 2026, in the Accountability application and will close at 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. The following describes the AEA Registration Criteria, which are unchanged from 2023.

2026 Preliminary Registered Campuses for AEA

In order for a campus to be identified for AEA in 2026, it must meet all of the following criteria:

• Meet either the current-year or prior-year TSDS PEIMS 75 percent at-risk criterion.
• Have at least 90 percent of students enrolled in grades 6–12, as verified through the 2025-26 TSDS PEIMS Fall Snapshot Submission.
• Be identified as offering alternative instruction in AskTED.
• Provide education services targeted to dropout prevention and recovery of students with enrollment consisting of at least 60 percent of the students 16 years of age or older as of September 1, 2025.

Campuses that meet the criteria have been preregistered as dropout recovery schools (DRS). The preregistered campuses in each district will be available in the Accountability application on March 5, 2026. Districts may choose to remove a preregistered campus from AEA by submitting an AEA rescission form via ��������L Accountability. No action is required if a campus within your district is preregistered as a DRS and you wish to keep it registered for AEA.  

Prior-Year Safeguard

If a registered Alternative Education Campus (AEC) does not meet the 75% at-risk enrollment criterion in the current year, it remains registered for AEA if the AEC met the at-risk enrollment criterion in the prior year.

Potentially Eligible but Not Preregistered DRS

Alternative campuses that meet all AEA criteria, with the exception of the 60 percent at age 16 criterion, must submit a DRS application during the AEA registration window in order to be identified.

The DRS application must present how the alternative campus is providing dropout prevention and/or recovery services. If the agency approves the application, the campus will receive a discretionary DRS designation and will be registered for AEA. Please view the 2026 Dropout Recovery School Application Guidelines for additional information.

Residential Treatment Facilities

As a reminder, residential treatment facilities (RTFs) are not rated under accountability regardless of AEA registration status. Districts must ensure the Instruction Type and Residential Facility Status are accurate in AskTED. If a campus is not correctly identified on the district’s list of preregistered campuses within ��������L Accountability as a residential treatment facility, the district must correct the campus's residential facility status by updating AskTED. Once AskTED is corrected, please notify Performance Reporting via the . New RTFs do not need to register for AEA in order to be labeled Not Rated; however, the district must ensure the RTF shows the instruction type as “alternative instructional” in AskTED.

2026 Final AEA Campus List

The 2026 Final AEA Campus List will be available in April on the 2026 Accountability Rating System webpage.

Additional Information and Resources

For questions regarding AEA, please contact the Performance Reporting Division via the .

For additional information on AEA methodology, refer to the AEA At a Glance resource.

If you need information on how to apply for ��������L Accountability access, please visit the �������� Secure Applications Information page and reference “accountability access.”

For assistance with AskTED, please contact the Texas Education Directory (TED) Administrator at AskTED@tea.texas.gov or (512) 463-9809.