The District of Columbia funds public elementary and secondary education primarily by its Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF). The UPSFF determines the bottom-line budget for DCPS and charter schools. It is how the money is allocated at the system level, providing schools with the pool of money they use to educate children and meet their needs.
 
It has three components. The first part is the foundation. This is the base cost to educate a theoretical “least expensive student,” one without any special needs and in grades that are relatively inexpensive, such as grades 4 and 5. The foundation covers general education and other school-based costs, which would include all the things that need to be present in a well-functioning school, such as a principal, sports costs, counselors, and other basics.
 
But this can’t cover all of the needs. So the second part of the UPSFF is the grade-level weights, which take into account the increased amount of money students need in particular grades. For instance, it costs less to be in 6th grade than to be in the lowest grades, because early education requires a lower student-teacher ratio. High school grades are also costlier because of the larger number of courses, greater technology needs, and so on.
 
On top of that, many students have special needs. That’s why the third part of the UPSFF is the supplemental add-on weights, which provide resources for students with special education needs, including English Language Learners and those needing summer school.
 
Hence, the way the UPSFF is calculated begins with the foundation, and then adds on the grade-level weights and supplement add-on weights as necessary.
 
The use of the formula is the result of the School Reform Act of 1995. When it was passed by Congress, it required the mayor and council to come up with a formula to treat both DCPS and charter school students equally in terms of funding, so that students with similar characteristics would be funded equally. In 2001, the responsibility of revising the formula and making recommendations about it came to what was then the State Education Office (SEO), now the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). To fulfill this charge, the SEO established a Technical Working Group (TWG) to advise it on education funding related matters. The TWG is a broad-based group of area experts, parents, city education officials, members of the charter community, and professionals.

Typically, members of the TWG:

Initially, to make the funding more adequate and research based, the SEO commissioned a study in consultation with the TWG which looked at practices in several states and surrounding counties to determine appropriate funding levels. This study identified and defined the specific education resources that schools needed–such as a principal, custodian, librarian, counselors, etc., referred to as a “market basket of education goods and services” –and costed them out. Since this was the common practice in many states, that methodology is called a Common Practice Study. The findings of the Common Practice Study were first approved by the council in 2003, based on the 2001 study.
 
Since then, the cost assumptions have been updated for inflation by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and to cover the costs of revised assumptions.

 

If you have questions, please contact Hom Raj Acharya, at (202) 727-8864.