Late last night, updated school aid runs were published. We have linked to those runs below. The aid runs show projected 2025-26 state aid for each school district, reflective of the final budget agreement. The legislature began passing budget bills yesterday, and will continue to do so today and possibly tomorrow. All final budget bills have been printed.
Overall Foundation Aid is relatively flat from the executive budget proposal to the final budget ($1.46 billion vs. $1.43 billion). This is generally because the Governor proposed full funding of Foundation Aid, with some formula updates, plus a guaranteed 2% minimum increase. The legislature largely accepted the Governor’s proposal, while adding some minor formula adjustments to the weighting for English language learners (ELL) and to the regional cox index for Westchester County. Beyond those small adjustments, the final budget also uses an updated database with more current data from school districts and an updated inflationary factor (as is standard practice).
The end result is that many districts will see a slight increase or decrease in their final Foundation Aid amount, as compared to the Governor’s proposal from January. Most of those changes should be relatively minor, although some more moderate increases or decreases may occur, based on local school district data.
NYSSBA Governmental Relations will produce a comprehensive summary of the final state budget in the days to come. We will also be hosting an enacted budget webinar on Friday, May 16th at 12pm. Registration information will be shared soon.