Katy ISD failed to report bus crashes to the Texas Education Agency for at least two of three school years. The gap persisted even after an April 2023 collision near Katy that killed a driver and injured students.

The reporting failure was uncovered by a KHOU 11 Investigates analysis, first reported Tuesday, Oct. 20. Reporter Tina Macías compared what districts told TEA's Bus Accident Reporting System with police crash reports filed with the Texas Department of Transportation.

The investigation found nine Houston-area districts, including Katy ISD, reported zero bus crashes to TEA for at least two of the three school years examined. TxDOT records showed 214 school bus crashes occurred within those districts' boundaries during the same period.

At the center of the story is the April 2023 crash at Morton Road and Dulaney Road, where a Jeep collided with a Katy ISD bus. The Jeep's driver did not survive. Wrecker driver Maynor Garcia arrived at the scene and found his daughter Maylin, a student on the bus, lying on the grass with a leg injury.

Garcia told KHOU 11 he hugged his daughter and asked if she was OK. She told him her leg hurt. His daughter's injury ended her high school cheerleading and volleyball career, Garcia said.

That crash went unreported.

A Katy ISD spokesperson told KHOU 11 the district previously only reported accidents in which the district driver was at fault. Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, the district said it submitted all applicable bus accidents to TEA regardless of fault.

Katy ISD also pointed to differences between TEA and TxDOT reporting rules. Under the Texas education commissioner's rules, a collision involving an empty bus does not have to be reported unless a pedestrian is involved. The TxDOT database includes all bus crashes submitted by law enforcement, whether or not students were on board.

State law requires school districts to report bus collisions annually to TEA under Texas Education Code, Section 34.015.

Ware Wendell, executive director of Texas Watch, a nonpartisan safety advocacy group, told KHOU 11 that complete data helps schools and policymakers spot dangerous routes and training gaps.

"We have to track a problem so that we can fix the problem," Wendell said.

Five of the nine districts acknowledged reporting mistakes after KHOU 11 pressed them for explanations. KHOU 11 reported that Stafford Municipal School District declined to comment and Galena Park ISD did not respond to the station's requests.

Garcia told KHOU 11 that accurate reporting matters because parents deserve to know what happens on the roads their children travel. TEA's annual Bus Collision Reporting Survey remains open for the current school year.