How DPS Schools Are Funded and What it Means for Students

1. How DPS Schools Are Funded and What it Means for Students

2. Overview: How Schools Get Funded in DPS Critical Points • The SBB funds exclude many of our school-specific expenses, including many of our special education services, like speech language itinerants, services for severe needs students, etc. Pension/retirement expenses, key instructional support services, and school-based support services that are budgeted centrally, including custodial, food services, grounds, technology, security, transportation, etc are also excluded from the SBB. • It is very misleading, therefore, to think of the SBB funds as the only money that goes to individual schools. $280M

3. How Much A School Receives Varies from $3,600 to $6,500 Per Student • On average schools receive $4,700 for each student • Certain types of schools and kinds of students receive more money than others • Most schools that received more than $6,000 per student benefited from the small school subsidy • Schools other than middle schools with fewer than 4 grades have been excluded • See appendices for details, like a stack ranking of schools

4. DPS Elementary School Students Receive 22% More Funding than High School Students • Elementary schools receive the most per student, followed by middle schools, K-8s, 6-12s and high schools $900

5. Explaining the 22% Per Student Difference in Funding Between Elementary and High Schools • Elementary schools receive $410 per student more for at-risk students (Title I and ELL are the primary drivers) than high schools for two reasons: • A smaller percent of the student body in high schools signs up for free or reduced lunch (FRL), the poverty measure for DPS • 2) High schools receive a smaller allocation of ELL money and fewer high schools qualify for Title I money, though every Title I student district-wide receives the same Title I allocation • The base funding per elementary school is $150 more than for high schools ($3249 vs $3098) • The main driver of the $340 difference in the “other” category is 2003 Mill Levy money, which is aimed at earlier grades $900

6. Appendix A: Stack Ranking of Schools by Per Student Dollars • Schools in italics have fewer than 4 grades • FRL means Free or Reduced Lunch and is a common measure of poverty • ELL students means English Language Learners and for the purposes of this table A21is the students who speak another language at home • For the purposes of this table, preschool is omitted and kindergartners receive only a half-day of per-pupil funding so each is counted as a half-student

7. Appendix A cont’d: Stack Ranking of Schools by Per Student Dollars • Schools in italics have fewer than 4 grades • FRL means Free or Reduced Lunch and is a common measure of poverty • ELL students means English Language Learners and for the purposes of this table A21is the students who speak another language at home • For the purposes of this table, preschool is omitted and kindergartners receive only a half-day of per-pupil funding so each is counted as a half-student

8. Appendix A cont’d: Stack Ranking of Schools by Per Student Dollars • Schools in italics have fewer than 4 grades • FRL means Free or Reduced Lunch and is a common measure of poverty • ELL students means English Language Learners and for the purposes of this table A21is the students who speak another language at home • For the purposes of this table, preschool is omitted and kindergartners receive only a half-day of per-pupil funding so each is counted as a half-student