The 2025 Legislative Session is officially a wrap!
After months of debate and delay, the FY26 state budget has been signed – and it includes significant investments in K-12 education.
From formula funding increases and school safety grants to targeted support for rural, low-income and high school programs, this budget covers a lot of ground.
Highlights include:
- A new base level of $5,113.26 per student
- $200M for building renewal grants
- Increased Group B weight for low-income students
- Millions in special programs – from robotics to CTED to school nurses
With the new school year approaching, now’s the time to see how these funding decisions will impact your work.
View all the key provisions and special program allocations below.
FY26 Budget As Enacted
Summary of K-12 provisions
Highlights and Formula Funding:
- Base level for FY26: $5,113.26 per pupil
- Basic state aid: $6.8B
- $72M of this comes from the state land trust
- Additional assistance supplement: $29M
- $23.1M for school districts, $5.9M for charter schools
- Group B weight increase for low income students: $37M
- $3.8M for eliminate the co-payment for students who qualify for reduced-price lunch
- $200M in building renewal grants deposit
- $95.6M for new school facilities
- $228,500 for increased staffing to manage ESA appeals
Special programs:
- $200K: Apache Junction Robotics program
- $500K: AED grants to prioritize schools with FRPL eligibility above 50%
- $1M: CTED certification exam fee reimbursement
- $1M: CTED completion grants
- $1M: CTED soft capital and equipment
- $3.8M: College Credit by Exam Incentive Program
- $1.3M Fee waivers for College Credit by Exam Program
- $1M: computer science professional development program
- $17.4M: early literacy
- $10K: Flagstaff Robotics program
- $100K: geographic literacy
- $850K: Gifted assessments
- $500K: Jobs for Arizona graduates (JAG)
- $3.4M: Ninth Grade On Track Program
- Provides at least $150 for each 9th grade student in the district or charter school, total number not to exceed 22,650.
- Funds must be used to expand programs that help 9th grade students complete enough credits to be on track to graduate in 4 years
- $2.5M: Rural Arizona School Nurse Access Program
- Requires ADE to allocate at least $500K of the $2.5M for the Rural Arizona School Nurse Access Program for grants to increase the salaries of school nurses in rural school districts and charter schools and allows ADE to spend any remaining monies on grants to rural school districts and charter schools to hire new school nurses.
- $82M: School Safety
- $10K: Show Low Robotics program
- $100K: teacher retention study
- Requires the funds for the teacher retention study be used by ADE to conduct and complete a comprehensive study to determine the retention rate of teachers in school districts and charter schools in Arizona.
- Requires ADE to develop and maintain a publicly accessible interactive dashboard on ADE’s website that contains the study results and recommendations.
- $2.4M: Teacher Certification
- $325K: Tribal college dual enrollment
- As session law, authorize Mohawk Valley Elementary School District to levy the small school adjustment in FY 2026.