Formula(Weights)

The Fair Student Funding formula allocates dollars to schools through four basic categories:

• Foundation—a fixed, $225,000 sum for all schools;
• Grade weights, based on student grade levels;
• Needs weights, based on student needs; and
• Enhanced weights for students in “portfolio” high schools.

	K–5	6–8	9–12
Grade Weights	1.00 / $3,946	1.08 / $4,262	1.03 / $4,064
Need Weights
Academic Intervention	K–5	6–8	9–12
Poverty	0.24 / $947	—	—
Achievement—well below standards Achievement—below standards	—	0.50 / $1,974 0.35 / $1,381	0.40 / $1,578 0.25 / $986
ELL	0.40 / $1,578	0.50 / $1,974	0.50 / $1,974
Special Education
Less than 20%	0.56 / $2,210	0.56 / $2,210	0.56 / $2,210
20–60%	0.68 / $2,684	0.68 / $ 2,684	0.68 / $2,684
Greater than 60% (self-contained)	1.23 / $4,853	1.23 / $ 4,853	0.73 / $2,881
Greater than 60% (integrated)	2.28 / $8,997	2.28 / $8,997	2.52 / $9,944
Portfolio Weights	K–5	6–8	9–12
Specialized Audition schools	—	—	0.35 / $1,381
Specialized Selective schools	—	—	0.25 / $986
CTE schools	—	—	0.05–0.25/ $197–$1,026
Transfer schools	—	—	0.40 / $1,578

Why these weights?

Fair Student Funding weights are always adequate for schools to meet legal and policy requirements. Beyond that, these weights reflect evidence-based judgments about the fairest levels of funding for students across New York City. In particular, the weights are designed to do two things:

• Meet the needs of students, with higher weights in grades and for the students who need the greatest support.
• Reflect fair, objective criteria that can be applied on an even-handed basis across New York City.Our weights are just designed to provide the fairest level of funding for a child’s education. There are many significant student needs beyond the current categories in Fair Student Funding, and in future years, we anticipate the weighting categories will expand.

No Significant Formula Changes for the 2008–09 School Year

The Fair Student Funding Formula is based on extensive public outreach in New York City, conversations with school leaders in other cities, and research on education funding and results.

We held extensive feedback sessions with principals and other key stakeholders in the winter to learn more about what has been working and has not been working about the Fair Student Funding formula in its first year. This feedback informed the few changes we will make this year, such as finding a way to give the academic weight to students with missing scores in a fair way. The feedback also informed an agenda for future changes to the formula that require more time for either preparation to implement the changes effectively or study to determine if they are the right changes.

For this coming year, there will be no significant changes to the formula. We concluded that because budgets for the 2008–09 school year are released before the first year of using the FSF formula was complete, it would be most prudent to wait until more meaningful study could be done on the formula before changing it significantly. Specifically, principals have not yet been through a full budget cycle with the FSF formula. Spending and achievement patterns are not available to be analyzed.

The small formula changes that will be made will improve its fairness and reflect increasing costs.

• Collective bargaining increase:
  • The weights will not change, but the amounts associated with them will change to reflect salary increases resulting from recent UFT, CSA and CWA contract settlements. The increase includes both FY08 and FY09 amounts. (This increase is referred to as “collective bargaining” or CB throughout this document.)

• Missing scores now counted:
  • Students who enter schools (starting above the 4th grade) and have no scores to indicate whether they should receive the achievement weight will now be eligible to receive the weight.

• “Unfilled” seats expected to be filled:
  • Non-new elementary and middle schools are initially allocated money to fund full special education CTT and self-contained classes. If schools fail to accept students and fill the class, the initial “unfilled seats” money will be removed at the mid-year adjustment for all but two unfilled seats.