Making Boston The Best Place For Youth And Families

The City's education budget will increase by $87 million over the FY25 appropriation, a combination of $80.8 million growth in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) budget and $6.2 million in Charter School Tuition Assessment payments.

 In FY25 BPS is proposing a $20 million investment in inclusive practices. After a planning year in FY24, resources for inclusion will be rolled out to early and middle grades in FY25, with the ultimate goal of closing opportunity gaps for the highest need students, including Students with Disabilities, Multilingual Learners, and Black and Brown students. 

An additional $6 million investment in schools will enhance supports for students by adding Special Education coordinators, school psychologists, guidance counselors, and new staffing in Transformation Schools. Part of this investment will also fund MassCore implementation to ensure that graduating BPS students are ready for post-secondary opportunities in college and the workforce.

FY25 will be a transitional year for the district, as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds are expiring. To prepare for the loss of these funds, the City moved about $15 million in personnel and services aligned with the district's strategic priorities to the operating budget in FY24. Continuing this effort in FY25, $6 million in new operating funding will sustain Central Office capacity that was previously funded on ESSER, including Equitable Literacy Coaches, Student Support personnel, Capital Planning capacity, educator recruitment and retention, and family engagement. The FY25 budget also includes $4 million to dedicate a portion of supplementary funds carried on ESSER in FY24 to support schools in which enrollment is projected to increase in FY25. More information on the FY25 BPS budget can be found here.

The Long Term Facilities Plan for Boston Public Schools will result in new school buildings in partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), as well as reconfiguring and renovating existing schools to align schools with K-6/7-12 and K-8/9-12 pathways. The planning process is focused on creating high-quality, twenty-first-century learning environments that enable students to close opportunity gaps. Over the next five years the FY25-29 Capital Plan projects $1.3 billion in BPS related spending.

While Boston Public Schools is critical to creating intergenerational opportunity, a series of investments elsewhere in the FY25 Recommended Budget are designed to enrich the lives of Bostonians of all ages. These include: