With the new school year about a week away, Clark County School District officials touted new transportation funding to help students make the move to better-performing schools as well as a relatively low number of teacher vacancies and no budget-related layoffs. 

Clark County School District Superintendent Jhone Ebert said in a phone interview Monday the district is preparing to welcome back around 280,000 students for the 2026-27 school year. That's a significant decline from the 2018-19 school year, when the district had more than 320,000 students. 

She said the district is just about fully staffed, which has brought stability to the district ahead of the first day. 

"So principals and teachers all know each other, and they're ready to rock and roll for the new school year," Ebert said. 

Transportation grants for families

There's good news for families who want their kids to attend a school other than what they're zoned for, but struggle with how to get there: The Clark County School District is offering up to $1,000 in transportation assistance to families of eligible students participating in its open enrollment program for the 2026-27 school year, and it's keeping paperwork to a minimum. 

A 2025 bill, AB553, appropriated $7 million for fiscal year 2027 to support students using open enrollment to attend a school that has a higher academic performance rating than their zoned school. 

Only three school districts were awarded grant funding: Clark County, Carson City and Douglas County, with Clark County receiving the lion's share at $6.6 million, though the district noted that state funding is only available for this school year.

Even before the bill, the school districts have allowed students to apply to attend a different school from the one in their home zone, provided there is space at the new school. However, transportation isn't typically offered, creating a barrier for families that can't afford to transport their kids to another school. 

"Our hope is to be able to … make that burden a little bit lighter for our families," said the district's Chief Academic Officer Gia Moore in a July 19 interview.

She said so far, close to 30,000 Clark County students will take advantage of open enrollment for the upcoming 2026-27 school year. 

About one-fifth of those students are zoned for a school rated two stars or less during the 2024-25 school year and are using open enrollment to attend a school with a higher rating, meaning they are potentially eligible to receive the grant funding. 

In order to qualify, families must submit an online form declaring they have a financial need for funds to transport their students. Moore said the guidance for the state granting doesn't require any extensive documentation to demonstrate financial need or set a specific income level. 

Families will also be required to ensure their students are not chronically absent, meaning students cannot miss more than 10 excused or unexcused school days in one semester. Failure to do so could result in students losing the transportation funding, Moore said. 

The district doesn't set any parameters for what families can spend the grant funding on. 

Eligible families must ensure their children have completed the open enrollment process by Aug. 21. If their application is approved, eligible families will receive $500 payment at the end of each semester. 

Moore said if a family has multiple children attending the same new school, they will only receive a single reimbursement.

No layoffs, near-full staffing 

Budget problems linked to the district's declining enrollment didn't leave any educators jobless: Ebert said none of the 62 teachers who were a part of the district's reduction in force in June were laid off. 

"We're able to find a position for every single staff member that didn't retire," Ebert said. 

The district is expecting to start the new school year with 99 percent of its classrooms staffed by a licensed educator and about 150 teacher vacancies, said Jo Anna Grant, an assistant human resource officer, in a July 27 interview. That's about half the number of vacancies the district started off the 2025-26 school year and significantly less than its peak of about 1,300 vacancies over the past seven years. Grant said 86 of those vacancies are for special education positions. 

The district is bringing on about 400 new teachers this year, about a 1,000 less than it needed to hire for the 2024-25 school year.