Budget Badge #04 - Budget: Revenues-Budget Badge #4

Budget Badge #4 - PowerPoint

Pdf Summary

This document explains how Washington school districts budget for revenues and how to estimate major revenue sources for a balanced annual budget. Revenue is the income raised to fund ordinary, recurring district operations, and districts must adopt a balanced budget where estimated revenues plus fund balance cover planned expenditures.<br /><br />It outlines four main revenue sources: local, state, federal, and other. In 2022–23, revenues were approximately 74% state, 14% local, 11% federal, and 1% other. Local revenues include property taxes (levies)—the largest local source—plus non-tax items such as tuition, fees, sales, rentals/leases, donations, fines, insurance recoveries, and investment earnings. Levy estimating requires understanding that levies are approved and collected on a calendar-year basis, but two calendar-year collections occur within one fiscal-year budget; districts should use historical spring/fall collection patterns and OSPI’s levy authority/LEA worksheets to project amounts.<br /><br />State revenues are primarily driven by student enrollment and include basic education apportionment and categorical programs (e.g., special education, LAP, bilingual, highly capable, CTE, Running Start, Open Doors, transportation, and food service). The Form F-203 (Estimate for State Revenues) in the EDS system is used to model and estimate state allocations; it must align with the F-195 budget and includes legislative funding drivers (e.g., IPD inflation, MSOC, staffing unit factors). OSPI tools such as the John Jenft legislative summary and various calculators support projections. An F-203x “x-option” is available before the legislative session concludes.<br /><br />Federal revenues (about 8–11% of budgets) are not estimated on the F-203 and are projected by reviewing carryover grants and likely renewals, using conservative estimates and including indirect costs. Common federal sources include IDEA, Title programs, Perkins, limited English, USDA food service, Impact Aid, and Federal Forests. The module includes knowledge checks and a final assessment requiring a 75% score.

Keywords

Washington school district budgeting

balanced annual budget

revenue estimation

local revenue sources

property tax levies

OSPI levy authority worksheets

state apportionment funding

categorical education programs

Form F-203 EDS

federal education grants