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 SED, 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 five-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 in the Education Building in Albany. The Department also has regional service facilities at various locations throughout the State.

Major Programs

Under the policy direction of the Board of Regents, operational responsibilities of SED 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, such as supporting the construction of school facilities, the transportation of pupils, and the education of students with disabilities.

Prekindergarten

Over the past 12 years, the State has tripled its annual commitment to prekindergarten from $385 million to over $1.2 billion. The FY 2026 Executive Budget provides an estimated 183,000 students with access to publicly funded prekindergarten programs – nearly 95% of whom may be served in full-day spots. Nearly every high-need school district offers prekindergarten. In addition, the State 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

The Smart Schools Bond Act, approved by voters in November 2014, 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. Further, the Bond Act provides funding for the replacement of classroom trailers with permanent classroom spaces, and high‐tech school safety programs. Over 1,600 Smart Schools Investment Plans, totaling $1.8 billion, have been approved in 638 school districts.

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. 85% of these students are school-age students, and the remaining 15% 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 three to five, are delivered primarily by private providers; however, some school districts and BOCES also provide these services.

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 currently oversees the preparation, licensure, practice, and discipline of the 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.

Budget Highlights

The FY 2026 Executive Budget recommends $48.0 billion for SED, an increase of $1.6 billion in funding from the FY 2025 Enacted Budget level. This change primarily reflects increased appropriations to support a $1.7 billion year-to-year increase in School Aid for the 2025-26 school year (SY 2026).

The Executive Budget also projects a workforce of 2,909 FTEs for SED, unchanged from FY 2025.

Major budget actions include:

• School Aid. The FY 2026 Executive Budget provides $37.4 billion in total School Aid for SY 2026, the highest level of State aid in history. This investment represents a $1.7 billion (4.7%) year-to-year increase compared to SY 2025, including a $1.5 billion Foundation Aid increase and a $230 million increase in all other School Aid programs including expense-based aids, categorical aids, and competitive grants.

• Foundation Aid. Created in 2007, Foundation Aid is the State’s main education operating aid formula. It is focused on allocating State funds equitably to all school districts, especially high-need districts, based on student need, community wealth, and regional cost differences. The FY 2026 Executive Budget begins the process of reforming the Foundation Aid formula by updating the formula’s two measures of the percentage of low-income students in a school district, consistent with the recommendations of the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Board of Regents. The outdated 2000 Census poverty rate is replaced with the most recent Census Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates data, while the unreliable free-and-reduced-price lunch data is replaced with economically disadvantaged data to better reflect the current population of low-income students. The Executive Budget also modifies the formula to provide additional aid to low-wealth school districts and to ensure that each district receives at least a two percent annual increase in aid, providing a total increase of $1.46 billion (5.9%) in Foundation Aid in SY 2026.

• Expense-Based Aids. The Executive Budget fully funds the current statutory formulas that reimburse a portion of certain school district expenses, such as school construction, pupil transportation, boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES) services, and the educational costs of certain students with disabilities. In total, these aid categories are projected to increase by $230 million (2.2%).

• College in High School Opportunity Fund. The FY 2026 Executive Budget provides $64.6 million for the College in High School Opportunity Fund, including $52.4 million for Smart Scholars, Smart Transfer, and Pathways in Technology Early College High School programs, and $12.2 million to provide new ongoing, per-credit funding for College in High School Programs.

• Create Distraction-Free Schools. The Executive Budget proposes to limit the use of smartphones and other internet-enabled devices on school grounds during school hours in order to ensure a distraction-free learning environment. This policy aims to improve student outcomes by addressing the negative impacts of smartphone use on children’s mental health and academic performance. The Executive Budget provides $13.5 million to aid in the implementation of distraction-free school policies.

• Universal Free School Meals. The Executive Budget provides $340 million for school meals, a $160 million (89%) year-to-year increase, and requires all school districts, charter schools, and nonpublic schools that participate in the national school lunch and breakfast program to provide free breakfast and lunch meals to all students regardless of their families’ income, thereby reducing costs for families and ensuring that no student goes hungry at school. Under the Universal Free School Meals program, the State will pay the student’s share of costs for all meals served to students not already receiving free meals.

• Nonpublic School Programs. Approximately 370,000 students attend roughly 1,600 nonpublic schools statewide. The Executive Budget provides $228.4 million in aid to reimburse nonpublic schools’ costs for State-mandated activities, a $10.3 million (4.7%) year-to-year increase, to fund aid payable in SY 2026. The Budget also provides $85.5 million for science, technology, engineering, and math instruction, a $10 million (13.2%) year-to-year increase. Further, the Budget continues $70 million for health and safety capital projects, including critical repair and maintenance of nonpublic schools’ facilities, and $5 million for art and music instruction.

• Charter Schools. Approximately 186,000 students attend 351 charter schools in New York State. Charter schools receive tuition payments made by school districts, funded through State and local sources; these tuition rates are established for each district based on the average annual growth in the district’s spending. Charter school students are included in the pupil counts used to calculate each district's School Aid. The State also provides additional aid to districts with charter school students through the supplemental tuition and facilities aid reimbursement programs. The Executive Budget continues this additional State support, providing a total of $190 million for charter school supplemental tuition and $145 million for charter school facilities aid.

• Preschool and Summer School Special Education Programs. Approximately 80,000 preschool-age children with disabilities receive special education services year-round and 50,000 school-age students with disabilities receive summer services. Services are delivered by private providers and special act school districts, as well as BOCES and school districts (primarily for summer programs). Counties and school districts pay for the cost of services in the first instance and are partially reimbursed by the State. The Executive Budget fully funds the State share of costs for both programs, providing $1.1 billion to reimburse counties for the cost of preschool special education services, a $57 million (5.5%) year-to-year increase, and $413 million to reimburse school districts for the cost of summer school services, a $9 million (2.2%) year-to-year increase.

• Support for Libraries. The Executive Budget supports public libraries by providing $104.6 million of Library Aid, equal to the SY 2026 statutory funding amount. This is a $748,000 increase over FY 2025 Enacted Budget levels. The Executive Budget also provides $34 million for Library Construction to fund various capital projects. In addition, the Executive Budget continues a $3 million appropriation to ensure continued access to the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library, a free online library of magazines, newspapers, maps, charts, research, and reference books available to all New Yorkers.

• Capital Investments in State-Owned Schools. The Executive Budget provides $27.6 million for capital improvements to the 5 State-owned schools. This includes $20.1 million for the 3 State-owned schools on Native American reservations (the Onondaga School, the St. Regis Mohawk School, and the Tuscarora School), $4.5 million for the State School for the Blind at Batavia, and $3 million for the State School for the Deaf at Rome. This capital funding will modernize HVAC systems and support school facility upgrades and necessary maintenance costs. With this funding, the State will have invested a total of $123.4 million in these 5 schools' facilities over 4 years.

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

Briefing Book – Education

Note: Most recent estimates as of 01/21/2025