structural:reformatting
Primary and secondary schools

Most people in the city of Dallas are within the Dallas Independent School District, the 12th-largest school district in the United States and second largest in Texas. The school district operates independently of the city and enrolls over 161,000 students. As of 2003 DISD has the majority of K–12 students in the city of Dallas, and a proportionately larger number of students who are not non-Hispanic white. One of the district's magnet schools, the School for the Talented and Gifted in Oak Cliff.

A few areas of Dallas also extend into other school districts, including Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Coppell, Duncanville, Garland, Highland Park, Mesquite, Plano, and Richardson. The Plano and Richardson school districts have the largest numbers of public school students in Dallas who are not in Dallas ISD. The Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District once served portions of southern Dallas, but it was shut down for the 2005–2006 year. WHISD students started attending other Dallas ISD schools during that time. Following the close, the Texas Education Agency consolidated WHISD into Dallas ISD.

Many school districts in Dallas County, including Dallas ISD, were formerly served by a governmental agency called Dallas County Schools. The system provided busing and other transportation services, access to a massive media library, technology services, strong ties to local organizations for education/community integration, and staff development programs.