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Department reports $1.2 million lapse in residential-schools budget after lower enrollment, North Slope program not yet operational
Summary
Department of Education and Early Development staff told the Senate Finance subcommittee that lower-than-expected enrollment across residential programs produced an estimated $1.2 million lapse in FY2025; the North Slope program has not yet met operational requirements and did not receive funding for FY2025.
Jake Almeda, the department's legislative liaison and special assistant commissioner, told the Senate Finance Subcommittee on March 25 that the department expects an estimated $1,200,000 lapse into the residential schools program component for fiscal year 2025.
Almeda said the residential schools program component includes both the boarding home program and the residential school program. "The boarding home program is for secondary students who do not have daily access to appropriate grade level at their local school," he said, and participation has been variable across the state. He added that lower-than-anticipated enrollment across seven of eight approved residential programs contributed to the lapse and that "one of the approved programs, the North Slope, [has] not having yet meet the operational requirements outlined in their approved application that resulted in not receiving funding for FY '25." He said the North Slope program is expected to qualify for funding in FY2026.
Heather Heineken, director of finance and support services for the department, told the panel that residential programs base counts on approved program capacities set in the residential applications and that enrollment has been recovering since COVID. "We are seeing a continued increase in capacity and do expect to be closer to our projected and... confident in our numbers being more accurate and not having quite the large lapses," Heineken said.
The department tied part of the lapse to limited participation in the boarding home program during FY2025; Almeda said only the Yukon–Koyukuk School District was participating in that program this fiscal year. The subcommittee asked how confident the department is that FY2026 appropriations will not again be overestimated; Heineken's answer emphasized that the department uses approved program capacities and recent enrollment trends to inform estimates.
The department did not provide a line-by-line enrollment count for each residential program in the subcommittee's meeting answers; Almeda said the North Slope program’s earlier failure to meet operational requirements prevented it from receiving FY2025 funds but that the department expects it to qualify in FY2026.
Subcommittee members asked follow-ups about how the department models bed counts and whether any additional monitoring or contingency planning will be used to reduce future lapses; staff described the enrollment-based capacity approach but did not offer a separate contingency figure at the hearing.
