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 2021 Executive Budget recommends $37.8 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 2021 Executive Budget provides an overall School Aid increase of $826 million (3.0 percent), with over 80 percent of this year’s increase directed to high-need school districts. This includes funding for a $704 million increase in Foundation Aid, 85 percent of which is directed to high-need school districts; a community schools set-aside increase of $50 million for the continued transformation of high-need schools into community hubs; $72 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 $6 million for early college high schools.
• More Progressive Foundation Aid: While New York spends more per pupil than any other state in the country, almost double the national average, longstanding politics, complex funding formulas, and disparities in local wealth and local property taxes have perpetuated an unfortunate reality—higher-need districts receive less total funding per pupil than lower-need districts. To generate greater equity and advance the closure of this education funding gap, and to more progressively distribute State funding to New York’s neediest districts, the Executive Budget recommends the consolidation of 10 expense-based aid categories into Foundation Aid starting in the 2020-21 school year. Currently, only 50 percent of these 10 expense-based aids are distributed to high-need districts, compared to more than 70 percent of Foundation Aid. To direct more expense-based aid to high-need districts, the Budget proposes legislation to consolidate these expense-based aids into Foundation Aid so that future funding increases can be more progressively targeted to the State’s neediest districts.
• Community Schools: The Budget continues the Governor’s push to transform New York’s high-need schools into community schools. Last year’s Budget invested $250 million as a set-aside within Foundation Aid to support the Governor’s community schools efforts across the State. This year, the FY 2021 Budget increases the community schools set-aside amount by $50 million, to a total of $300 million. This increased funding is targeted to districts with schools in need of comprehensive support and improvement (CSI) due to their academic performance, as well as districts with a large and/or growing population of English language learners. In addition, the Budget expands the number of districts receiving community schools funding to 440 districts—an increase of 200 districts. This ensures all lower-wealth 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: The Budget includes an additional $15 million investment in prekindergarten to expand high-quality half-day and full-day prekindergarten instruction for over 2,000 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. The Budget also continues the State’s $5 million investment in the implementation of QUALITYstarsNY, New York’s quality rating and improvement system intended to ensure the State’s youngest students are enrolled in the highest quality prekindergarten programs possible.
• Empire State After School Program: The FY 2021 Budget provides $10 million to fund a fourth 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 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: New York currently has over 90 early college high school programs serving thousands of students in every region of the State. These programs allow students to get a jump start on college by providing opportunities to earn college credit or an associate’s degree. To further build upon the success of the existing programs, the Budget commits an additional $6 million to create at least 10 new early college high school programs. This expansion will target communities with low graduation rates.
• Syracuse Comprehensive Education and Workforce Training Center: To meet the emerging science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics demands in Syracuse, the Executive Budget proposes the creation of the State’s first regional Comprehensive Education and Workforce Training Center in Central New York. Administered by the Syracuse City School District in partnership with SUNY Empire State College and other local colleges and universities, the Center will provide specialized educational opportunities and state of the art workforce training programs in advanced technologies to students and residents throughout the region. The State will reimburse 98 percent, or $71.4 million, of the cost to renovate the building that will house the Center. The Syracuse Comprehensive Education and Workforce Training Center is scheduled to open in 2021 and will ultimately serve 1,000 students, as well as residents of the community.
• Charter Schools: The FY 2021 Executive Budget increases charter school tuition in alignment with public school spending and provides New York City charter schools with a total per pupil funding increase of 5.3 percent. This will allow charter schools to continue to innovate, recruit high-quality teachers and staff, and provide strong educational options for New York’s families and students.
• 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 percent, to $199 million, to reimburse nonpublic schools’ costs for State-mandated activities. The Budget also provides $35 million for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction, a $5 million increase. In addition, the Budget continues $15 million in annual capital funding provided to nonpublic schools for health and safety projects.
• Reining in Expense‐Based Aids: Since FY 2012, school district spending on non‐instructional expenses such as construction and transportation has outpaced inflation. To encourage school districts to control spending and free up additional State resources for more progressive Foundation Aid increases, the FY 2021 Budget advances legislation to cap growth in future Transportation Aid for operating expenses to the greater of inflation or inflation plus district enrollment growth, eliminate a regressive reimbursement aid ratio within Transportation Aid, and propose a new tier of Building Aid for projects approved beginning in the 2020-21 school year.

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 673 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 nearly $850 million. This year, over 128,000 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 750 Smart Schools Investment Plans totaling almost $1.4 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 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 01/29/2020