The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study was to explore how school administrators described their understanding of the decision-making process in the allocation of funds to urban elementary schools in New York. Twelve participants took part in online questionnaires followed by Zoom interviews. A convenience sample of principals were…

The enactment of various federal mandates has increased accountability measures for schools and superintendents. The mandates aim to increase student achievement and learning. With the growing diversity of student populations in schools, districts are required to address the varied academic and non-academic needs of students. As the system leader…

The New York State Board of Regents' 2004-05 State Aid Proposal put forward the idea of instituting Foundation Aid as a response to concerns about the sufficiency of state education funding then being provided to local school districts. In 2007, prompted by legal action, a call for reform by the Regents, and the election of a new governor with a…

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) entitles students with disabilities to a free appropriate public education. Students with disabilities often require additional support to enable them to achieve academic and functional goals relative to their nondisabled peers. These legally protected supports and services all add up…

At their best, K-12 public school systems can be engines of social and economic mobility. Unfortunately, schools in lower-income districts -- whose students have the greatest academic needs -- often receive less funding than their counterparts in more affluent districts. Discussions about closing these funding gaps usually zoom all the way out to…

For years researchers have stressed the importance of implementing a Culturally Responsive System to improve outcomes for Black students (Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education, 2018). It is important to shift towards a perspective that sees everyone from an asset-based perspective The narrative that was created throughout time was that Black…

Superintendents as decision-makers in public school systems, in their roles of both leader and manager, have been the topic of studies for many decades (Waters, J. T., & Marzano, R. J., 2006; McClellan, R. L., Hyle, A. E., & Ivory, G. (2010). However, there is little research regarding superintendents' decision-making related to resource…

The aim of this research was to examine the influence of fiscal determinants on high school graduation rates for African-American students in Long Island public schools during the 2019- 2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school years, within the context of various federal initiatives and educational equity policies. Utilizing ANOVA and linear…

Problem: English Language Learners in New York are a special population that is difficult to serve. The regulation gives basic recommendations for what is needed for resource allocation, but there is a gap related to how leaders must make decisions to allocate resources effectively for English as a New Language (ENL) programs. The purpose of this…

This Policy Snapshot provides examples of legislation in 13 states that have proposed or enacted legislation addressing the following principles of K-12 funding models: attendance and enrollment, revenue, and equity-based initiatives. All 50 states allocate K-12 funding in different ways. Refer to this two-page reference guide, which defines and…

Hold-harmless provisions in state aid formulas are meant to restrict declines in revenues for school districts. They may take several forms, including limits on the changes in state aid from year to year, supplemental funding for districts with declining enrollment, alternatives for calculating the state aid amount, or use of past enrollments in…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate the funding equitably across community college districts in Michigan. Pursuant to this investigation, the disproportionate effect that community college funding has on underserved populations was examined. This research utilized a quantitative approach, including descriptive statistics,…

Sixty-seven school finance reforms (SFRs) in 26 states have taken place since 1990; however, there is little empirical evidence on the heterogeneity of SFR effects. We provide a comprehensive description of how individual reforms affected resource allocation to low- and high-income districts within states, including both financial and…

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress in 2020 included significant aid to state education systems. These included direct aid to K-12 districts and higher education institutions, and funds to be used at the discretion of Governors through the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER). We examine…

Every school district in New York spends more per student than the national average. Yet, there are variations among districts -- largely depending on communities' relative wealth to help fund their school district. State aid attempts to equalize local wealth capacity among districts, which is evident by the fact that more than 72 percent of the…