FY22 Budget Engagement

The DCPS budget cycle is a year-round process and one that provides opportunities for stakeholders across our community — including parents, students, and principals, teachers and staff — to be engaged in the development of their school budget. Learn more about how DCPS receives funding, understand how that funding is dispersed, and examine individual school budgets by visiting the new budget website at dcpsbudget.com.

Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Budget Engagement

DCPS will continue to fund schools using the Comprehensive Staffing Model (CSM) for School Year 2021-2022, also known as Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22). While we had originally planned to introduce a next generation funding model for our schools for the upcoming year, with the shifts our families have experienced due to the COVID-19 public health pandemic, maintaining our current model for FY22 allows communities to engage with their schools on budgets year-over-year with a strong foundation of understanding. This approach will also allow us to carry out in-depth engagement this year on the DCPS budget, including how it can best serve students considering the changing needs brought about by the pandemic.

DCPS Budget Timeline

Winter

Student budget hearing – December
LSAT budget engagement
Enrollment projections finalized for upcoming fiscal year to determine DCPS local funding
School budgets
- Schools receive their initial allocations for upcoming fiscal/school year
- Local School Advisory Teams (LSATs) provide input regarding school budget development
- Schools submit final budgets for upcoming fiscal/school year
Central Office budget finalized

Spring

DCPS Budget Hearing – March
DC Council approves the upcoming fiscal year budget

Summer

Optional: Schools may request an amount of local Non-Personnel dollars from the upcoming fiscal year budget to spend on goods and services (July-September) to get ready for the upcoming school year. This is known as “Summer Advance.” Unspent summer advance funds return to the school’s budget in the winter of the upcoming year.
School summer reprogramming requests capture and process changes needed to make in the local budget. Changes to non-personnel dollars are reflected in the budget in the winter of the upcoming year.
District leaders present the next fiscal year budget to the US Congress for approval.