Ward 6 Checklist for Budget Legislation

Checklist for budget legislation

Below are some priorities for future budget legislation from Ward 6 parents  

On transparency of school budgets:

☐ Ensure the public has sufficient data to identify exactly how “at-risk” funds are allocated and spent at each school, for both DCPS and charter schools.

☐ Report for each school the amount of “at-risk”, special education, and English learner funding separately by category and differentiate these categories from money spent on general education (e.g., comprehensive staffing model).

☐ Create categories that allow stakeholders to easily determine how much money is spent at individual school sites, as opposed to central office administrative costs (e.g., resources such as instructional superintendents should be coded as central office).

For DCPS schools only:

☐ Require DCPS to identify separate funding amounts by school for “at-risk”, special education, English learner, and general education in initial school budgets.

☐ Require DCPS to publish the percent change in year to year school budgets after removing costs moved from central office to school budgets (e.g., school security officers) and accounting for increases in staffing costs and enrollment changes.

On how funds are allocated and spent:

☐  Enforce the law that requires “at-risk” funds to be allocated directly to school sites and to be used as supplemental funds, as opposed to using being used to back-fill general education costs.

☐  Require that charter LEAs also use “at-risk” funds to supplement instruction or services. Currently, the law only applies to DCPS schools.

For DCPS schools only:

☐ Give discretion back to school communities to determine how to allocate “at-risk” funds, within certain criteria outlined by DCPS.

☐ Require DCPS to meaningfully engage school communities before making any changes to the school budget model. Also require DCPS to publish side-by-side comparisons of each school budget under the old and new models at least one fiscal year prior to implementation.

October 31, 2019