The New Jersey Department of Education Office of School Finance is currently developing revised school aid figures for 2018-2019, based on the state budget signed on July 1. A release date has not been announced. It is anticipated that guidance on addressing state aid changes will be provided when the figures are released.
The new state budget will increase total aid by $340 million over last year’s amounts. However, it will also result in revisions—both increases and decreases—in the individual school district aid numbers that were released in March 2018.
Last week’s special edition of School Board Notes provided information on the 2018-2019 state budget’s impact on school funding.*
School Board Notes will provide further updates and post a comparison chart following the release of the final state aid notices from the NJDOE Office of School Finance.
* The July 3 online edition of School Board Notes initially included a chart that compared district-by-district state aid allocations for fiscal year 2019 with the state aid amounts for fiscal year 2018, and the March 2018 state aid notifications. The sources for the information were the Office of Legislative Services (FY2019 and FY2018) and the New Jersey Department of Education (March 2018 notifications). The chart included inter-district school choice aid in the column listing the March 2018 state aid notifications. However, inter-district school choice aid, which is received by approximately 130 school districts, was not reflected in the data provided by the Office of Legislative Services, making comparison inaccurate for those districts. Therefore, the chart was removed from the article.