A number of activities are scheduled in The Woodlands area this weekend, including outdoor events such as a birding classic, and several demonstration and expos. This list is not comprehensive, and events are subject to change.

Great Texas Birding Classic
The annual competition held across Texas determines which team can identify and count the most birds during a specific window of time. The township team will be at The Lookout bird blind at the George Mitchell Nature Preserve.

• May 2, 6:30-10:30 a.m.
• Free
• George Mitchell Nature Preserve Creekside West Trailhead, The Woodlands

Health and Fitness Expo
The free health, wellness and fitness event includes health screenings, exercise classes, educational talks and a Kid Zone.

• May 2, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Free
• Town Green Park, 2099 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands

Tea Top will be coming soon to Spring and The Woodlands area, an official confirmed in April.

What you need to know: The grand opening date was not yet available, as of early April. The shop serves a variety of flavored tea, milk tea and matcha drinks as well as other beverages.

• Opening this spring
• 453 Sawdust Road, Ste. 102, Spring

In a one-year snapshot of Greater Houston attitudes, residents expressed the largest drop in confidence about regional job opportunities in more than 40 years, according to survey results released April 27 from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

About the data: Rice University researchers collected nearly 9,000 responses between January and February from residents in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

At a glance: One quarter of residents across all three counties named the economy as the “biggest problem” facing the Houston area this year compared to 16% in 2025, survey results show.

Crime and safety was the second-most commonly identified problem, followed by the cost of housing for Harris County residents and traffic for residents of Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. 

Another detail: The percentage of residents reporting they are “just getting by” or “finding it difficult to get by” increased across all income groups in the past year, survey results show.

Also of note: About 7 in 10 residents expressed concern about the environment’s effects on their health, researchers found. 

Friendswood and Alief ISDs had the largest percentages of students with dyslexia and autism across the Greater Houston area, according to Texas Education Agency data released March 13 and April 9.

The overview: Community Impact analyzed 30 local school districts across the Greater Houston region to determine which schools have the most students enrolled in special education programs.

According to the data, the districts with the largest total of students receiving special education services in 2025-26 are:

• Houston ISD with 21,430 students
• Katy ISD with 18,443 students
• Cy-Fair ISD with 17,584 students
• Fort Bend ISD with 12,688 students
• Conroe ISD with 11,239 students

The Houston-Pasadena region rose one spot, and is now ranked No. 6 out of 226 metropolitan areas for its number of high ozone days, according to the 2026 State of the Air report released by the American Lung Association on April 21.

Looking back: The region was ranked No. 7 in 2025, Community Impact previously reported. Between 2022-24, the Houston region’s annual weighted average of high ozone days was 43.3, according to the report.

Some context: Ozone air pollution, aka smog, is a lung irritant and can cause health problems, such as chest tightness, coughing and shortness of breath, according to the ALA.

What else: With regard to annual particle pollution, the Houston-Pasadena area ranked No. 8 out of 211 metropolitan areas. The region also ranked No. 89 out of 224 metropolitan areas for 24-hour particle pollution, according to the report.