Austin Independent School District

Austin Independent School District operates as a recipient of federal grants rather than a federal contractor, with 50 prime grant awards (21% of its federal footprint) and 191 sub-grants (79%), serving approximately 75,000 students across 130 school campuses in Texas. The district does not hold federal contracts or sit on federal IDVs; its federal engagement is exclusively grant-funded through multiple federal agencies, with the most recent activity in May 2026.

Austin ISD's primary federal customer concentration sits with the Department of Education. The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education leads with 88 awards, anchoring the portfolio across multiple programs including Title I, Part A (low-income school support); Title II, Part A (teacher and principal quality); Title III, Part A (English learner services); Title IV, Part A (student support and academic enrichment); IDEA-B Formula and Preschool grants (special education services ages 3–21); Indian Education Formula Grants; Career and Technical Education (CTE) grants; McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance grants; and 21st Century Community Learning Centers. The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families accounts for 35 awards, primarily Head Start programming and teen parent childcare services. The Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services delivers 27 awards. The Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service issues 18 awards, chiefly child nutrition programs. The National Endowment for the Arts has issued 11 awards supporting the Creative Learning Initiative, an ongoing collective impact effort for arts education in Austin. Together, these five agencies represent 74% of Austin ISD's award count.

Beyond state-pass-through sub-awards from the Texas Education Agency (which account for the bulk of the 191 sub-awards), Austin ISD receives direct prime grants from specialized federal funders. The Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $6.25 million Project Grant under the Clean School Bus Program (CFDA 66.045) to replace twenty-five diesel school buses with twenty-five zero-emission electric buses and install charging infrastructure, with completion targeted by July 2027. The Department of Energy funds a cooperative agreement for "Solar for Schools at Austin ISD" running through January 2027. The Community Oriented Policing Program (COPS) has issued three project grants: a $2.2 million SAFER Outcomes grant (Oct 2024–Sep 2026) for crisis intervention training of 250 AISD Police Department officers responding to mental health crises on campus; a School Violence Prevention Program grant (Oct 2022–Sep 2026) for school security improvements; and a CIT grant (Sep 2021–Aug 2025) to embed licensed mental health professionals with police responding to high-risk crisis calls. The Bureau of Justice Assistance funded a restorative justice initiative pilot at two middle schools (Oct 2023–Sep 2026). The Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education awarded $1.86 million for the College and Career Incubator (Jun 2023–May 2026). HUD's Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development issued a congressionally directed spending award for economic development (Aug 2024–Aug 2032) under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022. Austin ISD received $2.015 million for "Equitable Access to Outdoor Spaces," supporting literacy programs and full-service community schools (Aug 2023–May 2026).

Activity has grown significantly in 2024, with 68 awards compared to 33 in 2022 and 2023. The district faces six award completions within the next twenty-four months, though dollar magnitudes on individual awards are not consistently disclosed in the source. Sub-award work flows primarily through the Texas Education Agency, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (refugee resettlement and school impact programs), and Texas state agencies (Texas A&M Forest Service, Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Office of the Governor). Austin ISD also serves as a sub-recipient on research grants from Texas A&M University and Texas State University related to environmental remediation.