Education Department, State

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Agency Web Site: http://www.nysed.gov/

Mission

The State Education Department (SED) is the administrative agency of the Board of Regents. The Department's primary mission is to raise the knowledge, skill, and opportunity level of all the people in New York.

Organization and Staffing

The Board of Regents oversees SED, which was originally established by the Legislature in 1784 and subsequently continued in the State Constitution. The Board of Regents is comprised of 17 members – one for each of the State’s 13 judicial districts and four statewide members – who are elected by a joint session of the Legislature for staggered five-year terms. The Board elects its chair, who holds the title Chancellor, and appoints the Commissioner of Education as the chief administrative officer of the Department. The Department’s central operations are in the Education Building in Albany. The Department also has regional service facilities at various locations throughout the State.

Budget Highlights

The FY 2025 Executive Budget recommends $45.8 billion for SED, an increase of $1.5 billion in funding from the FY 2024 Enacted Budget level. This change primarily reflects increased appropriations to support an $825 million year-to-year increase in School Aid for the 2024-25 school year (SY 2025).

The Executive Budget also projects a workforce of 2,900 FTEs for SED, an increase of 24 FTEs from the FY 2024 projection.

Major budget actions include:

• School Aid. The FY 2025 Executive Budget provides $35.3 billion in total School Aid for SY 2025, the highest level of State aid ever. This investment represents a year-to-year increase of $825 million (2.4 percent) compared to SY 2024, including a $507 million Foundation Aid increase and a $318 million increase in all other School Aid programs including expense-based aids, categorical aids, and competitive grants.

• Foundation Aid. Foundation Aid is the State’s main education operating aid formula. It is focused on allocating State funds equitably to all school districts, especially high-need districts, based on student need, community wealth, and regional cost differences. Following three years of historic growth to fully phase in the formula, the Executive Budget provides a $507 million (2.1 percent) increase in Foundation Aid for SY 2025. This increase is driven largely by the formula's inflation factor, which the Executive Budget sets at 2.4 percent, representing the average annual change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the last 10 calendar years (2014-2023), excluding the highest and lowest years. Through a wealth-based “Transition Adjustment,” the Executive Budget also allows districts to retain $207 million of Foundation Aid in SY 2025 in excess of their respective full funding targets under the formula, moderating the impact of enrollment declines. Every school district receives at least as much Foundation Aid as its full funding target as calculated under the Executive proposal.

• Expense-Based Aids. The Executive Budget fully funds the current statutory formulas that reimburse a portion of certain school district expenses, such as school construction, pupil transportation, boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES) services, and the educational costs of certain students with disabilities. In total, these aid categories are projected to increase by $318 million (3.2 percent).

• Supplemental Assistance Grants. The Executive Budget includes $100 million of Supplemental Assistance Grants to provide additional aid to school districts for SY 2025.

• Ensuring Evidence-Based Best Practices in Reading Instruction. Governor Hochul’s “Back to Basics” reading plan takes statewide action to ensure that every school district utilizes instructional best practices grounded in the science of reading. The Executive Budget requires SED to promulgate instructional best practices in reading instruction. By September 2025, districts must certify to SED that their reading curriculum and instructional strategies align with these best practices. This proposal maintains districts' autonomy to update their curriculums while ensuring that students receive effective reading instruction. To promote adoption of these best practices, the Executive Budget invests $10 million to support training through the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Education and Learning Trust for 20,000 elementary school teachers and teaching assistants across the State.

• Nonpublic School Programs. Approximately 370,000 students attend roughly 1,700 nonpublic schools statewide. The Executive Budget provides over $239 million in aid to reimburse nonpublic schools’ costs for State-mandated activities, a $44 million (23 percent) year-to-year increase, to fully fund estimated aid payable in SY 2025 and address actual and anticipated funding shortfalls for SY 2023 and SY 2024 aid. The Budget also continues $73 million in annual funding for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction and $45 million for health and safety capital projects, including critical repair and maintenance of nonpublic schools’ facilities.

• Charter Schools. Approximately 182,000 students attend 343 charter schools in New York State. Charter schools receive tuition payments made by school districts, funded through State and local sources; these tuition rates are established for each district based on the average annual growth in the district’s spending. Charter school students are included in the pupil counts used to calculate each district's School Aid. The State also provides additional aid to districts with charter school students through the supplemental tuition and facilities aid reimbursement programs. The Executive Budget continues this additional State support, providing a total of $185 million for charter school supplemental tuition and $120 million for charter school facilities aid.

• Preschool and Summer School Special Education Programs. Approximately 80,000 preschool-age children with disabilities receive special education services year-round and 50,000 school-age students with disabilities receive summer services. Services are delivered by private providers and special act school districts, as well as BOCES and school districts (primarily for summer programs). Counties and school districts pay for the cost of services in the first instance and are partially reimbursed by the State. The Executive Budget fully funds the State share of costs for both programs, continuing $1.0 billion to reimburse counties for the cost of preschool special education services and providing $404 million, a $36.5 million (10 percent) year-to-year increase, to reimburse school districts for the cost of summer school services.

• Special Education Tuition Rate-Setting Reform. Funding for preschool and school-age special education providers is determined through a rate-setting methodology administered by SED. These providers serve approximately 80,000 preschool children year-round, 50,000 school-age students during the summer, and 14,000 school-age students during the school year. As requested by SED, the Executive Budget provides an additional $1.4 million for SED to study and design a new special education tuition rate-setting methodology in order to streamline and improve the timeliness of tuition rates for providers, bringing total available project funding to $3.9 million. The Executive Budget also extends the deadline for SED to present its recommendations from July 1, 2025 to July 1, 2027.

• School Food Programs. Approximately 5,000 New York State schools currently participate in the national school lunch and breakfast programs, serving approximately 2.8 million public and nonpublic school students statewide. The Executive Budget provides over $200 million in State funding for these programs, an $11 million (5.8 percent) year-to-year increase. The Budget continues the FY 2024 State-funded initiative to incentivize qualifying public and nonpublic schools with significant proportions of low-income students to participate in the Federal Community Eligibility Provision program, allowing all students in those schools to eat breakfast and lunch at no charge regardless of their families’ income. This initiative will enable up to 90 percent of New York State's students to eat for free.

• Support for Libraries. The Executive Budget supports public libraries by providing $102.1 million of Library Aid, a $2.5 million increase over FY 2024 Enacted Budget levels, and $34 million for Library Construction to fund various capital projects. In addition, the Executive Budget appropriates $3 million to ensure continued access to the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library (NOVELny), a free online library of magazines, newspapers, maps, charts, research, and reference books available to all New Yorkers.

• Capital Investments in State-Owned Schools. The Executive Budget provides $27.6 million for capital improvements to the five State-owned schools. This includes $20.1 million for the three State-owned schools on Native American reservations (the Onondaga School, the St. Regis Mohawk School, and the Tuscarora School), as well as $4.5 million for the School for the Blind at Batavia and $3 million for the State School for the Deaf at Rome. This capital funding will modernize classrooms and HVAC systems, among other school facility upgrades. With this funding, Governor Hochul will have invested a total of $95.9 million in these five schools' facilities over three years.

For more information on this agency's budget recommendations located in the Executive Budget Briefing Book, click on the following link:

Briefing Book – Education (PDF)

Program Highlights

Under the policy direction of the Board of Regents, operational responsibilities of SED include administration, regulation, and review of numerous education programs. The following provides a description of the major program areas administered by the Department:

School Aid

School Aid helps support elementary and secondary education for New York pupils enrolled in the 673 major school districts throughout the State. State funding is provided to districts based on statutory aid formulas and through reimbursement of categorical expenses such as prekindergarten programs, education of homeless children, and bilingual education. State funding for schools assists districts in meeting locally defined needs, such as supporting the construction of school facilities, the transportation of pupils, and the education of students with disabilities.

Prekindergarten

Over the past decade, the State has tripled its annual commitment to prekindergarten from $385 million to over $1.2 billion. The FY 2025 Executive Budget provides an estimated 187,000 students with access to publicly funded prekindergarten programs – over 90 percent of whom may be served in full-day spots. Nearly every high-need school district offers prekindergarten. In addition, the State provides funding to support the implementation of QUALITYstarsNY – a tiered quality rating and improvement system for early childhood programs across the State – which seeks to improve the quality of early learning childcare facilities by assessing programs and providing continuous support for early childhood professionals. This additional support helps monitor the rigor and quality of the State’s prekindergarten portfolio and helps ensure all children are enrolled in high-quality programs.

Smart Schools Bond Act

The Smart Schools Bond Act, approved by voters in November 2014, provides $2 billion in funding for districts to reimagine classrooms and provide New York’s students with the technological resources, skills, and learning environments necessary to succeed in the 21st century. Funding supports enhanced education technologies, including infrastructure improvements, high‐speed broadband internet access, and active learning technologies. Additionally, the Smart Schools Bond Act supports the State’s long‐term investments in full-day prekindergarten through the construction of new prekindergarten classrooms. Further, the Bond Act provides funding for the replacement of classroom trailers with permanent classroom spaces, and high‐tech school safety programs. Over 1,300 Smart Schools Investment Plans totaling $1.8 billion have been approved in 625 school districts. To expedite future approval of Smart Schools Investment Plans, the Executive Budget shifts responsibility for plan approvals from the Smart Schools Review Board to an administrative process overseen by SED.

Programs for Students with Disabilities

The State provides a full range of special education services to approximately 500,000 students with disabilities, from ages 3 to 21. Eighty-five percent of these students are school-age students, and the remaining 15 percent are preschool children. Approximately 405,000 school-age students with disabilities are served by public school districts, while roughly 15,000 students require specialized educational settings in private schools, State-supported schools for the blind and deaf, special act school districts, or one of the State-operated schools at Rome and Batavia. Preschool special education services, for children ages 3 to 5, are delivered primarily by private providers; however, some school districts and BOCES also provide these services.

Cultural Education

Cultural Education programs administered by the State Education Department include support for public broadcasting stations and aid to public libraries and library systems. SED also administers the State's major cultural institutions located in the Cultural Education Center in Albany, including the State Archives, the State Library, and the State Museum. These institutions are responsible for increasing the knowledge and information resources of State and local government, businesses, and individuals.

Higher Education and Regulation of the Professions

Higher and professional education programs oversee the quality and availability of post-secondary education programs, and license and regulate over 50 professions. The Office of Higher Education oversees colleges, universities, and proprietary schools; is responsible for the certification of teachers and other school professionals; and oversees programs to improve teacher preparation and recruitment. The Office of Professions currently oversees the preparation, licensure, practice, and discipline of the professions regulated pursuant to Title VIII of the Education Law, including nursing, dentistry, public accountancy, and engineering.

Adult Career and Continuing Education Services

The Office for Adult Career and Continuing Education Services (ACCES) focuses on the education and employment needs of New York State’s adult population by offering a full range of employment and independent living services to persons with disabilities; overseeing the development of adult education programs that support adult literacy, English language instruction, high school equivalency test preparation, and other services; and licensing and regulating the non-degree-granting proprietary schools in New York State.

Note: Most recent estimates as of 01/16/2024