NYC Public Schools Budget
For the 2023-2024 school year (Fiscal Year 2024), our total budget is $39.4 billion.
Where Does Our Funding Come From?
Funding generally comes from income and corporate taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes.
- 53% comes from New York City ($21B)
- 36% comes from the New York State ($14B)
- 6% comes from Federal stimulus funding ($2B)
- 5% comes from other Federal funding ($2.1B)
- The remainder (under 1%, or approximately $0.3B) comes from private or other sources
How Is NYC Public Schools’ Budget Spent?
NYC Public Schools' 39.4 billion budget is spent as follows:
$22.9 billion (58%) goes to:
- $15.5 billion - K–12 schools & instruction
- $4.8 billion - School operations
- $2.1 billion - Early Childhood Birth-to-Five services
- $260 million or 1% - Superintendents and field offices
- $200 million or 1% - Central administrative offices
$16.4 billion (42%) goes to:
- $7.4 billion - Employee benefits & pension
- $3.4 billion - Debt payments
- $3.0 billion - State-mandated payments to charter schools
- $2.6 billion - Non-public & contract schools per Special Education mandate
A Closer Look at Our Operations Budget
What Does Our $4.8 Billion School Operations Budget Support?
- $2.1 billion - Facilities & Utilities. Across our system, there are over 135,000,000 square feet of space cleaned, maintained, and receiving utilities such as water and electrical service.
- $1.7 billion - Student Transportation. This includes operation of roughly 9,000 bus routes, serving 150,000 students across the city and beyond.
- $600 million - Food. NYCPS serves 800,000 meals served daily, with free breakfast and lunch available to all students.
- $300 million - School Safety Agents. The safety of students and staff is our top priority, supported by 4,000 school safety agents across our schools.
Much of this funding goes to support our workers: over 8,000 food workers, over 8,700 bus drivers and 7,200 bus attendants, over 800 custodian engineers, 5,200 cleaners and handypersons.
A Closer Look at Our Schools & Instructional Budget
What Does the $15.5 Billion K–12 School & Instructional Budget Support?
- $11.7 billion - Salaries for Classroom Staff and School Leadership, accounting for 74,000 teachers; 5,200 principals, assistant principals, and deans; 5,300 social workers/school counselors; 3,000 school secretaries; 21,000 paraprofessionals; and about 2,000 other staff
- $1.7 billion - Supplies and Supports for Schools, including textbooks, professional development, curricula, and computers used by students and staff across our schools
- $1.1 billion - Direct Student Services, provided by over 400 Community Schools, over 400 Pathways and other Career and Technical Education programs, over 200 Project Pivot programs. Summer Rising crosses categories and will support 110,000 students with academic instruction and Community Based Organization enrichment
- $1.0 billion - Other Staff Costs, accounting for 7,500 school aides, 2,900 therapists, 2,700 parent coordinators/community coordinators, and 1,900 other staff across our schools
How Has Our Budget Changed Over Recent Years?
Since the 2018–2019 school year, per-student spending has grown by over 20%, primarily due to stimulus funding.
Please note that per-student spending only includes students at NYC Public Schools facilities; per State guidelines, this figure excludes debt service, transportation, and food costs.
Fiscal Year (FY) | Stimulus Budget | Total DOE Budget | Per-Student Spending |
---|
FY 2019 | N/A | $33.6B | $25,810 |
FY 2020 | N/A | $34.5B | $26,236 |
FY 2021 | $0.9B | $34.5B | $27,046 |
FY 2022 | $2.8B | $37.7B | $31,259 |
FY 2023 | $2.0B | $37.6B | $30,738 |
FY 2024 projections | $2.0B | $39.4B | $31,256* |
FY 2019-FY 2024 change | N/A | $4.9B | $5,447 |
% Growth (FY2019-FY2024) | N/A | 15% | 21% |
*Updated as of September 2023
Capital Budget
New York City Public Schools leverages capital funding to build new schools, renovate existing schools and purchase equipment, which is managed and administered by the NYC School Construction Authority.
School Budgets
Financial Reporting
New Report: FY 2024 School Budget At a Glance
New York City Public Schools has launched a new School Budget At a Glance report (SchoolBAG) which displays a school’s total funding per student as compared to the citywide average. The report summarizes school funding, spending, and demographics and provides a glossary and a link to funding details for reference. This report will support families' understanding of their school’s budget and serve as a resource for budget-related questions.
We publish several school based financial reports and other reports required by law. You can access all these financial reports on our InfoHub.
Fair Student Funding
Fair
Student Funding (FSF) is the main source of money for most schools. With input
from the School Leadership Team, principals decide how to spend these funds to
meet basic educational needs.
FSF is based on the number of students enrolled at each school and the needs of those students. This budgeting method is called a weighted pupil-funding model. You can find more information on our FSF page.
In July, 2022 the
Chancellor convened a Working Group to develop recommendations for potential changes
to Fair Student Funding. You can find more information on the Fair Student Funding Working Group on our Infohub.
School Allocation Memoranda (SAMs)
Schools receive notifications about all direct allocations including FSF by means of School Allocation Memoranda (SAMs). SAMs explain the specific purposes of each source of funds.
You can find SAMs on our Infohub. The written description in each SAM provides:
- purpose of the funds
- background about the funds
- source of the funds
- how the funds should be used