Education Department, State

Agency Web Site: http://www.nysed.gov/

Mission

The State Education Department (SED) is the administrative agency of the Board of Regents. The Department's primary mission is to raise the knowledge, skill, and opportunity level of all the people in New York.

Organization and Staffing

The Board of Regents oversees the State Education Department, which was originally established by the Legislature in 1784 and subsequently continued in the State Constitution. The Board of Regents is comprised of 17 members—one for each of the State’s 13 judicial districts and four statewide members—who are elected by a joint session of the Legislature for staggered 5-year terms. The Board elects its chair, who holds the title Chancellor, and appoints the Commissioner of Education as the chief administrative officer of the Department. The Department’s central operations are located in the Education Building in Albany. The Department also has regional service facilities at various locations throughout the State.

Budget Highlights

The FY 2020 Executive Budget recommends $37.1 billion for the State Education Department. The Executive Budget recommends a workforce of 2,692 FTEs for the State Education Department, the same level as the prior year.

Major budget actions include:

• School Aid Increase: The FY 2020 Executive Budget provides an overall education aid increase of $1 billion, including a school aid increase of $956 million (3.6 percent). This includes a $338 million increase in Foundation Aid with a community schools set-aside increase of $50 million for the continued transformation of high-need schools into community hubs, $410 million in reimbursements for expense-based aids, a $15 million expansion of high-quality prekindergarten for three- and four-year-old children, a $10 million expansion of Empire State After School grants to high-need districts, and an additional $9 million for early college high schools. In addition, the FY 2020 Budget builds on the State’s first ever collection and reporting of school-level financial data by requiring school districts to dedicate a significant portion of their Foundation Aid increases to address inequities in their most underfunded, neediest schools.
• Ensuring School Funding Equity: The State’s School Funding Transparency initiative, enacted with the FY 2019 Budget, has revealed that districts’ allocations to their highest-need schools are not always equitable. To ensure all schools—no matter the challenge or circumstance—are funded appropriately, and to end the underfunding of the State’s neediest schools, the FY 2020 Executive Budget advances legislation requiring school districts to dedicate a significant portion of their Foundation Aid increase to address inequities between their most underfunded, neediest schools and their other schools, based on a plan to be submitted to and approved by the State Education Department.
• Community Schools: The Budget continues the Governor’s efforts to transform New York’s high-need schools into community schools. Last year’s Budget invested $200 million as a set-aside within Foundation Aid to support the Governor’s community schools efforts across the State. This year, the FY 2020 Budget increases the community schools set-aside amount by $50 million, to a total of $250 million. This increased funding is targeted to districts with failing schools and/or districts experiencing significant growth in English language learners. In addition, the Budget increases the minimum community schools funding amount from $75,000 to $100,000. This ensures all high-need districts across the State can apply community schools funds to a wide-range of activities, including hiring community school coordinators, providing before- and after-school mentoring services, offering summer learning activities, and providing health and dental care services.
• Prekindergarten for Three- and Four-Year-Old Students: The Budget includes an additional $15 million investment in prekindergarten to expand high-quality half-day and full-day prekindergarten instruction for 3,000 three- and four-year-old children in high-need school districts. Preference for these funds will be given to the few remaining high-need school districts currently without a prekindergarten program, and will focus on including students in integrated or community-based settings.
• Empire State After School Program: The FY 2020 Budget provides $10 million to fund a third round of Empire State After School awards. These funds will provide an additional 6,250 students with public after school care in high-need communities across the State. Funding will be targeted to school districts with high rates of childhood homelessness and communities vulnerable or at-risk to gang activity. This expansion will provide more young people with safe environments to engage in sports, music, and other educational programming during after school hours.
• Early College High Schools: The FY 2020 Executive Budget provides an additional $9 million to expand the State’s early college high school programs. These programs allow students to get a jump start on college by providing opportunities to earn college credit or an associate’s degree. New York currently has 70 early college high school programs serving thousands of students in every region of the State.
• Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Access: The FY 2020 Budget includes an additional $1.8 million—$5.8 million total—to subsidize AP and IB exam fees for thousands of low-income students across the State. The Budget also provides $1 million in grants to support school districts and BOCES that wish to provide advanced courses and do not currently do so or else do so only on a very limited basis. Combined, these initiatives will provide further access to advanced coursework for low-income students and will promote educational equity across the State.
• Nonpublic Schools: Approximately 400,000 elementary and secondary students attend more than 1,600 nonpublic schools in New York State. The Executive Budget increases aid by 3.6 percent, to $193 million, to reimburse nonpublic schools’ costs for State-mandated activities, and provides a $5 million increase for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction. In addition, the Budget provides $25 million in new capital funding to boost safety and security at New York’s nonpublic schools, community centers and day care facilities that are at risk of hate crimes or attacks because of their ideology, beliefs, or mission. This builds upon $25 million that was included in the FY 2018 Budget for this purpose and $15 million in annual capital funding provided to nonpublic schools for health and safety projects.
• State-Supported Schools for the Blind and Deaf: The Executive Budget provides $30 million in capital funding for health and safety projects at the 11 State-supported schools for the blind and deaf, which serve approximately 1,400 students with disabilities. Unlike other private schools serving students with disabilities that receive funding for their capital needs through a tuition rate supported by State and local funds, there is no such financing mechanism available for the State-supported schools for the blind and deaf.
• Ensuring Greater Stability in School Aid: Large swings and year-over-year volatility in annual State personal income growth have resulted in a School Aid growth index that is irregular and unpredictable. To reduce budgetary uncertainty for the State and school districts, the Executive Budget advances legislation to amend and align the School Aid growth cap to the 10-year average of State personal income growth (analogous to Medicaid’s Global Spending Cap, which is based on the 10-year average of the Medical Care Consumer Price Index). This year’s 3.6 percent Executive Budget School Aid increase reflects this proposal.
• Simplifying Expense-Based Aids: The FY 2020 Executive Budget advances legislation to merge 11 major expense-based aid categories into a new aid category—Services Aid—starting in the 2020-21 school year. Services Aid, which will grow annually based on inflation and district enrollment, will help ease the administrative burden on school districts, and will provide greater simplicity and flexibility in School Aid. In addition, the Executive Budget proposes a new tier of Building Aid for newly approved projects. These changes will offer more certainty over future funding, and provide additional State resources to support future Foundation Aid increases.
• Three-Year Extension of Mayoral Control: The Executive Budget advances legislation to extend the existing governance structure for New York City schools for an additional three years, until June 30, 2022.
• Decoupling Test Scores from Teacher and Principal Evaluations: The FY 2020 Executive Budget recommends reforming the teacher evaluation system so that schools will not be required to use a State test as the measure of student performance and instead will be able to locally select what assessments or student learning is the best way to measure growth.

For more information on this agency's budget recommendations located in the Executive Budget Briefing Book, click on the following link:

Briefing Book – Education and Arts (PDF)

Program Highlights

Under the policy direction of the Board of Regents, operational responsibilities of the State Education Department include administration, regulation and review of numerous education programs. The following provides a description of the major program areas administered by the Department:

School Aid

School Aid helps support elementary and secondary education for New York pupils enrolled in the 674 major school districts throughout the State. State funding is provided to districts based on statutory aid formulas and through reimbursement of categorical expenses such as prekindergarten programs, education of homeless children, and bilingual education. State funding for schools assists districts in meeting locally defined needs, supports the construction of school facilities, and finances school transportation for nearly three million students statewide.

New York State Prekindergarten

Under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, the State has more than doubled its annual commitment to prekindergarten from $385 million to over $800 million. This year, over 123,000 students will be enrolled in the State’s publicly-funded prekindergarten programs—75 percent of whom will be served in full-day spots. In addition, the State also provides funding to support the implementation of QUALITYstarsNY—a tiered quality rating and improvement system for early childhood programs across the State—which seeks to improve the quality of early learning childcare facilities by assessing programs and providing continuous support for early childhood professionals. This additional support helps monitor the rigor and quality of the State’s prekindergarten portfolio and helps ensure all children are enrolled in high quality programs.

Smart Schools Bond Act

In November 2014, the Smart Schools Bond Act, proposed by Governor Cuomo, was approved by voters. The Smart Schools Bond Act provides $2 billion in funding for districts to reimagine classrooms and provide New York’s students with the technological resources, skills, and learning environments necessary to succeed in the 21st century. Funding supports enhanced education technologies, including infrastructure improvements, high‐speed broadband internet access, and active learning technologies. Additionally, the Smart Schools Bond Act supports the State’s long‐term investments in full-day prekindergarten through the construction of new prekindergarten classrooms, the replacement of classroom trailers with permanent classroom spaces, and high‐tech school safety programs. To date, over 600 Smart Schools Investment Plans totaling almost $1.3 billion have been approved by the Smart Schools Review Board..

Programs for Students with Disabilities

The State provides a full range of special education services to approximately 500,000 students with disabilities, from ages 3 to 21. Eighty-five percent of these students are school-age students, and the remaining 15 percent are preschool children. Approximately 405,000 school-age students with disabilities are served by public school districts; while roughly 15,000 students require specialized educational settings in private education schools, State Supported Schools for the Blind and Deaf, Special Act School Districts, or one of the State-Operated Schools at Rome and Batavia. Preschool special education services, for children ages 3 to 5, are delivered primarily by private providers; however some school districts and BOCES provide these services as well.

Cultural Education

Cultural Education programs administered by the State Education Department include support for public broadcasting stations and aid to public libraries and library systems. SED also administers the State's major cultural institutions located in the Cultural Education Center in Albany, including the State Archives, the State Library and the State Museum. These institutions are responsible for increasing the knowledge and information resources of State and local government, businesses, and individuals.

Higher Education and Regulation of the Professions

Higher and professional education programs oversee the quality and availability of post-secondary education programs, and license and regulate over 50 professions. The Office of Higher Education oversees colleges, universities and proprietary schools; is responsible for the certification of teachers and other school professionals; and oversees programs to improve teacher preparation and recruitment. The Office of Professions oversees the preparation, licensure, practice and discipline of more than 50 professions regulated pursuant to Title VIII of the Education Law, including Nursing, Dentistry, Public Accountancy and Engineering.

Adult Career and Continuing Education Services

The Office for Adult Career and Continuing Education Services (ACCES) focuses on the education and employment needs of New York State’s adult population by offering a full range of employment and independent living services to persons with disabilities; overseeing the development of adult education programs that support adult literacy, English language instruction, high school equivalency test preparation and other services; and licensing and regulating the non-degree granting proprietary schools in New York State.

Note: Most recent estimates as of 1/15/2019