Joint Finance Committee hears Department of Education FY2026 budget overview, $2.35 billion general fund recommended

Secretary Cindy Martin and department staff presented the Department of Education's recommended fiscal year 2026 operating budget to the Joint Finance Committee, outlining a recommended general fund appropriation of $2,354,516,500 and a package of program and personnel adjustments.

Kylie, a department staff presenter, told the committee the budget includes an appropriated special fund spending authority of $5,869,500 and personnel changes in fiscal year 2025 and 2026. Kylie said the recommended budget contains a personnel contingency of $168,352,900 and specifically noted adjustments tied to slower-than-projected unit growth: “Instead of 225 units of growth this year based off of the September 30 unit count, the actual unit growth that we saw in September was at 194 units. So we see a reduction of 31 units and a reduction of $3,185,400,” Kylie said.

The recommended package also contains several program-specific amounts. The department recommended $8,407,500 to support mental health unit enrollment growth for elementary and middle school students and $5,000,000 as a block grant to support high‑school mental health units in place of full implementation of years 1 and 2. Additional items in the package include an increase to the Division 2 “all other costs” unit value from $2,925 to $3,010 per unit (a $1,100,000 request), $25,168,300 in DTI secure end‑user services and personnel adjustments tied to enrollment growth, and $3,651,600 to address cafeteria salary needs driven by enrollment.

The recommended budget also reallocates scholarship administration: seed scholarship funding would move to the University of Delaware ($4,600,000 to Delaware Tech and $13,000,000 to Delaware State University were listed as department requests), and INSPIRE scholarship increases were reflected as requests. The recommendation includes $90,000 to maintain the BIM 360 school‑building mapping software after a federal emergency management grant reduction, $650,000 for the Children’s Services cost recovery system maintenance, and a $25,000,000 general contingency for projected unit growth of 225 units in the coming school year.

Committee members asked staff for clarifications about unit counts, what is included in different divisions, and how reallocated funds were identified. Martin framed the department's priorities in the hearing around student support and literacy if funding is approved. Martin said data must guide investments: “When students aren't learning, this is almost always about the way we can come together as adults to put the right supports in place to prepare students for success,” she said.

The department and lawmakers did not take any formal votes during the hearing.

Looking ahead, staff said additional detail and follow‑up materials on a number of line items — including the online child‑care licensing system costs, the full fiscal impact of mental‑health bill implementation, and the unit‑value calculation — would be provided to the committee for budget deliberations.