Lake Travis Independent School District

About Lake Travis ISD

Lake Travis Independent School District is a public school system headquartered in Austin, Texas, serving communities in the Lake Travis corridor west of the city. The district was created on June 12, 1981, when school board members chose to split from the Dripping Springs Independent School District to better serve the rapidly growing population around Lake Travis. Today Lake Travis ISD covers approximately 118 square miles, bounded by the Travis–Hays county line to the south, the shores of Lake Travis to the north, the Pedernales River to the west, and Lake Austin and Barton Creek to the east.

The district enrolls approximately 11,300 students across eleven campuses: one high school (Lake Travis High School), three middle schools, and seven elementary schools serving Bee Cave, Lakeway, Briarcliff, The Hills, and surrounding unincorporated communities. The Texas Education Agency rated Lake Travis ISD “Exemplary”—the highest designation—in 2011. Voters in the district have approved over $321 million in bonds over the past decade to fund facilities and technology improvements.

Books and the Community

Lake Travis ISD serves one of the more affluent communities in the Austin metropolitan area, yet it has not been untouched by the wave of school book challenges spreading across Texas. Seven titles in the dataset tracked here have been removed or restricted within the district. While small in number compared to larger urban and suburban districts, these removals reflect how organized campaigns to challenge library books have reached communities of all sizes and demographics across the state.