District 25 budget team walks parents through Fair Student Funding formula and school allocations

District officials presented an overview of Fair Student Funding (FSF) and how the formula determines school budgets during the Feb. 11 meeting of Community Education Council District 25. The presentation explained the citywide budget context, District 25’s allocation for the 2024–25 school year, and where families can find school-by-school budget details online.

The presentation, led by “Dr. Mike” with Paula Letito identified as the district’s budget director, put the New York City Public Schools total budget at roughly $41.2 billion for the 2024–25 school year and described the city, state and federal shares that fund it. “Total budget for 24–25 school year was 41,200,000,000, or about $32,000 per capita in our system,” officials said. District 25 received about $644 million in allocations for the year, the presenters said.

Why it matters: FSF is the largest source of operating funds for NYC schools and is intended to direct more resources to students with higher needs. The formula combines a foundation allocation, collective-bargaining (salary) adjustments, and per‑student weights for grade level and special needs to produce each school’s FSF allocation.

Officials walked listeners through the components of FSF and sample calculations that show how individual student needs change the per‑pupil allocation. “Fair Student Funding in general … is based on the number of students that each of our schools have, plus the specific needs that our kids have,” Dr. Mike said. The presentation showed base weights (for example, a baseline weight of 1.00 for K–5 and higher base weights for middle and high school) and additional weights for needs including poverty, students below standards, students in temporary housing, English language learners, and special education categories. Using the example in the presentation, the district showed two hypothetical students who—because of differences in special education services, ELL status and other needs—would receive different per-student allocations ($13,742 and $11,317 in the example).

The presenters emphasized that some funding sources are targeted and separate from FSF (for example, charter payments, district 75 funding, mandated IEP services). They also demonstrated how parents can view school allocations and budget memos via the DOE website’s “Find a School → Reports → Budget & Finances” pages and the School Allocation Memoranda that govern how each funding source may be used.

Officials said the city’s FSF guide, school-by-school allocation memos and an interactive budget “Budget at a Glance” are publicly available and encouraged parents to review them. The presenters also announced a public comment period on proposed formula changes: parents may submit questions or comments to budgetpubliccomments@schools.nyc.gov or by phone at (212) 374-6754 between March 7 and April 22. “We are continuing to review the formula to address other concerns we’ve heard about school budgeting in future years, including challenges related to school size and enrollment shifts,” Letito said.

Questions from council members focused on how adjustments are made when projected enrollment changes (October 31 is the enrollment snapshot that determines allocations), how FSF interacts with Title I, Title III and other targeted grants, and whether schools approved for class-size reduction would receive additional allocations to hire staff for new sections. Officials said schools submit feasibility plans and, if approved, would receive funds for hiring to implement reduced class sizes.

Ending: Officials offered to walk parents through the website after the meeting and to make themselves available to answer further questions. They reiterated that detailed allocation memos specify allowable uses for each funding source and that FSF gives schools flexibility to set budgets aligned with school‑level priorities.