The state superintendent of schools, Benjamin M. Baker, praised the new law's abandonment of tying teachers' salaries to the number of pupils attending, a practice he called "a relic of barbarism.

[20] School desegregation in Texas did not begin for nearly six years after the United States Supreme Court made its May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education decision, nullifying the previous doctrine of "separate but equal" public facilities.

The Dallas school board commissioned studies over the next several months, deciding in August 1956, that desegregation was premature and that the segregated system would stay in place for 1956–57.

[24] After the forced busing desegregation, in the 1970s many White American students and families withdrew from district schools en masse.

On October 6, 1970, Tasby filed a lawsuit against DISD claiming that the school district continued to operate a segregated system.

[26] Tasby's challenge wound its way through the courts over the next 33 years, eventually getting passed to Judge Barefoot Sanders.

After a series of hearings, Judge Sanders found that DISD continued to show signs of segregation and constituted the Desegregation Plan for the Dallas Independent School District.

In June 2003, 49 years after Brown v Board was decided, Judge Sanders ruled that Dallas ISD was desegregated and no longer subject to his oversight.

[31] From 2005 to 2007, several northwest Dallas area public schools under Dallas ISD jurisdiction became infamous due to the outbreak of a Dallas-area recreational drug, a version of heroin mixed with Tylenol PM, called "cheese," which led to several deaths of Dallas-area youths.

Dallas ISD issued drug dog searches to schools in order to combat the problem.

[32] Dallas ISD was reported in April 2008 to have the 7th highest dropout rate of any urban school district in the US.

[37] Effective July 1, 2018, four elementary schools originally named for confederate generals were renamed:[38][39] During the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, in 2021 the DISD board voted to require masks, contradicting Governor of Texas Greg Abbott's order to disallow school districts in the state from having mask mandates.

[41] On August 8, 2021, Dallas ISD suffered a data breach affecting the information of students and employees from 2010 to 2021.

In response, the district stopped using suspensions as a disciplinary practice in 2021, instead sending suspended students to "reset centers".

Robert Wilonsky in The Dallas Morning News stated in 2017 that while other buildings around it were changed by gentrification, the DISD headquarters was "a rare, defiant survivor".

[49] In April 2016, trustees approved a plan to purchase the 9400 NCX office building on Central Expressway in North Dallas.

[51] In the process, school trustees voted in February 2017 to sell various surplus properties; among them, the district's Ross Avenue headquarters complex.

[52][53] Permits were filed by the buyer of the longtime headquarters building, in April 2017, to tear down the complex; this was a cause of concern for local preservationists.

The district also serves Cockrell Hill, most of Seagoville and Addison, Wilmer, most of Hutchins, and portions of the following cities:[58][59] In addition, Dallas ISD covers unincorporated areas of Dallas County, including some other surrounding areas, including those with Ferris addresses.

Teachers in the district created an African-American studies class, which includes information on African countries prior to 1619.

[65] As of 2015[update] some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the central city area are actually in the Highland Park Independent School District (HPISD), not DISD.

Holly K. Hacker of The Dallas Morning News said that DISD schools "showed extreme highs and lows in college readiness.

Hacker said "[t]hough they serve some students with lower incomes, the campuses have a huge advantage because they accept only those with high test scores.

In 2016 Nicholson wrote that "By the end, DISD's Anglo exodus could be rationalized as a response not to racial mixing but to concentrated poverty, flagging test scores and an inept administration perennially mired in scandal.

One reason for the decline in the percentage of black students is the move of black people to suburbs; they did so due to a perception that public schools there have a higher quality than those in DISD, as well as general desires for higher quality housing and lower crime environments.