This past Sunday, the Committee on Appropriations of the Virginia House of Delegates released their revisions to the biennial budget. In each midpoint of the biennial, the executive and legislative branches propose changes and revisions that reflect revenue collections and economic forecasting models.
The items below reflect key K12 revisions to the 2024-2026 budget. This is only a selection of the revisions made. To view the entire list of budget revisions, click here. To view the presentations from Appropriations Committee staff, click here and see materials from the February 2, 2025 meeting of the committee.
Item 118 #1h- This amendment provides $5.0 million the first year from the general fund to support system enhancements to the Virginia Individualized Education Plan (IEP) System. These enhancements include modules to support student progress tracking, document translation, family engagement, IEP and 504 processes, and a dashboard to support performance monitoring.
Item 119 #1h- This amendment saves $58.1 million in fiscal year 2025 and $4.3 million in fiscal year 2026 by deferring the implementation of the next statewide assessment contract until the 2027-2028 school year. In lieu of proceeding with an RFP for an assessment contract, this amendment provides $700,000 in one-time funds in fiscal year 2026 for a vendor with national expertise in statewide assessment systems to advise how best to proceed with a procurement in the next biennium. In addition, this amendment provides $2.7 million in fiscal year 2025 to support extension costs for the current assessment contract. Extension costs for fiscal year 2026 are addressed through additional federal funds included in the introduced budget.
Item 120 #1h- This amendment redirects $50.0 million from the general fund in fiscal year 2025 proposed in the introduced budget to establish a Board of Education-directed fund. These redirected funds enable the elimination of the support cap.
Item 120 #2h- This amendment removes $250,000 the first year and $1.0 million the second year from the general fund and six proposed positions to provide regional support positions. Chapter 2, 2022 Special Session I, provided an additional 18 positions for the Office of School Quality to support school improvement activities. This amendment ensures that those additional positions are used for their intended purpose and for the regional support positions as proposed in the introduced bill.
Item 123 #1h- This amendment saves $1.9 million the first year and $3.1 million the second year from the general fund by redirecting proposed general fund support for Virginia's Visualization and Analytics Solution, or VVAAS. These funds are repurposed for other public education purposes. VVAAS was implemented by the administration using pandemic relief funds.
Item 125 #1h- This amendment redirects $50.0 million from the general fund in fiscal year 2026 by removing the proposed Virginia Opportunity Scholarship Program. These redirected funds allow the support cap to be eliminated.
Item 125 #4h- This amendment provides $222.9 million the second year from the general fund to eliminate the cap on funded support positions, reverting to the methodology used prior to 2009 to fund support positions. This is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding.
Item 125 #5h- This amendment provides $52.8 million in fiscal year 2026 for an add on to basic aid of 4.75 percent for special education students receiving Level I services and 5.25 percent for special education students receiving Level II services. Level I services are less intense than Level II services. This is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding.
Item 125 #8h- This amendment provides $140.5 million the first year from the general fund to provide a $1,000 bonus on September 1, 2025 for state supported instructional and support positions.
Item 125#9h- This amendment (i) increases the amount available for school construction assistance grants by $10.0 million the second year, recognizing additional available fiscal year 2025 casino gaming revenues; and (ii) eliminates the proposed transfer of $150.0 million from the Literary Fund to the School Construction Fund for construction assistance grants in the first year, ensuring sufficient Fund balances will be available for school construction loans or other allowable uses in the upcoming biennium. These actions provide $310.0 million for School Construction Assistance Grants over the biennium, an increase of $150.0 million from the adopted budget.
