Yesterday evening, Governor Hochul and her senior leadership team held a press conference to announce that she has reached a “general agreement” with the legislature on the 2025-26 state budget.
As of this morning, no new budget bills have been released. During the press conference, Governor Hochul noted “in the next few days, the legislature will be conversing and voting on budget bills, and as is the case every year, some final details are still yet to be worked out through that process.” Given past practice, it seems reasonable to assume that the entire process will be completed by the end of this week. Traditionally, the education budget bill is one of the last budget bills to be released.
As final negotiations continue, the legislature is expected to pass a ninth budget extender today, funding state operations through Thursday, May 1.
During the press conference, Governor Hochul reviewed a number of headline details in the budget, but provided little new information with regard to education funding or other details that may be directly relevant to schools. The items she noted as part of this “general agreement” include:
- $340 million to provide free school breakfast and lunch to all K-12 students
- Bell-to-bell ban on student use of smart devices in schools, beginning in September
- $37 billion in school aid (no further details)
- Updates to poverty measurements within the Foundation Aid formula
- Comment that schools will “receive more funding than they would have under the old (Foundation Aid) formula”
As additional details are released, including district-specific school aid runs, we will provide those to you.