District Finance

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Does your district need new budget moves?

In school districts around the country it’s that special time of year we call “The Budget Dance.” Now is a good time to take stock of what’s missing from the annual process, and ensure leaders are including equity and performance data in every step going forward.

New & Notable

bar chart showing higher needs elementary schools in 20 of California’s largest districts saw the smallest growth in spending from 2019–20 to 2022–23.

Analysis

No silver school-spending bullets: 5 lessons from ESSER to help drive continued learning recovery

Commentary

Big-City Districts Are Beset by Financial Dysfunction - and Kids Pay the Price

slide image with text: tendency to look the other way on Sp Ed spending

Analysis

Are students benefiting from the rising costs of Special Ed? A fresh look at the data

Featured Research, Data, & Analysis

Time To Change the District Budget Dance

Getting maximum value from available dollars is imperative, and may require some changes to the traditional budget process, writes Marguerite Roza in School Business Affairs Magazine.

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Are students benefiting from the rising costs of special ed?

With new data emerging, we took a fresh look at special ed spending to better understand the extent to which rising identification rates and staffing increases deliver value for students. State-by-state comparisons make it clear that systems are making different choices when it comes to serving students with disabilities and those choices are delivering wildly different results for students.

Learn more about our findings

Most districts now have more staff than ever before

Federal relief funds triggered a hiring frenzy (which then triggered a staffing shortage). In the states where we’ve combed through the data, we see a big jump in non-teaching specialists and aides. Teachers are up too (albeit at a smaller proportionate increase), as are administrators. Per usual, Edunomics Lab asks: Is it working? Are students benefiting?

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Widespread teacher shortages are mostly over (for now)

District conditions are changing rapidly. While federal relief funds triggered mass hiring, those funds are ending. Now, districts must find ways to shrink their budgets and their staff rolls. It’s more important than ever to track real-time data.

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