Jul 12 Final PA 2024-25 Budget Makes Key Investments for Children: BOOST, CTE, and More

(July 12, 2024)

As we stretch more than a week past June 30, the end of the fiscal year and the constitutional deadline for a completed budget, the 2024-2025 budget has finally been signed. Here’s a recap of children related allocations that the General Assembly agreed to and the Governor signed:

Jump to:
Education & Lifelong Success
Family & Community Supports
Health & Wellness

Education & Lifelong Success

On the heels of the Basic Education Funding Commission’s report which outlined specific ways to equitably distribute funding to K-12 schools across the commonwealth, the enacted budget continues to make historic investments of almost $1 billion in our school districts. Increases are mostly split between Basic Education Funding, Ready to Learn Block Grants, a $100 million increase to Special Education, and Career and Technical Education. To see the impact that this will have on Allegheny County Schools, click here.

Basic Education Funding: The budget invests an additional $285 million in basic education funding (BEF). Additionally, the budget enacts recommendations from both the Republican and Democrat versions of the BEF Commission’s report (read more here) by resetting the BEF formula’s distribution base to 2022-2023 levels and will now use American Community Survey’s five year estimates to define poverty levels within a district.

Ready to Learn Block Grants: The budget allocates a $526 million increase in Ready to Learn Block Grants. These block grants will be distributed using a base that is no less than what was distributed to a district in 2023-24, and then the rest of the funds will be distributed via an adequacy formula. This formula is a way to distribute funds to our most struggling districts and will replace the Level-Up supplement that was included in previous budgets. The BEF Commission’s finalized report recommended an adequacy formula. However, that recommendation, and what was proposed in the governor’s budget, was for the distribution of BEF dollars.

Career and Technical Education: Allies for Children is very pleased to see a $30 million increase in CTE funding. This increase includes a $25 million increase in the CTE subsidy – which is significantly higher than the $2.3 million increase proposed in the Governor’s budget, and a $5 million increase for the CTE equipment grant line item, which was flat funded in the Governor’s proposed budget.

Cyber Charter Schools: $100 million is allocated to reimburse school districts for their cyber charter school tuition to better reflect the actual cost to educate students with special needs in a cyber charter school setting.

Out-of-School Time: In a historical victory, the state budget included $11.5 million in dedicated funding for the Building Opportunity through Out of School Time program (BOOST). This is the first time that the state has allocated funding directly for out-of-school time programming. Congratulations to all the advocates who have worked tirelessly for many years to get this over the finish line!

Family & Community Supports

Child Care: Child Care Service received a total increase of $26 million, which is below the governor’s proposed increase of $31.6 million. While this will help maintain the subsidy income guidelines and the number of children served, it is not enough to meet the need and does not address challenges related to child care. The Child Care Administration line was flat funded. To read more on this issue, check out this post from the Pre-K for PA campaign.

Child Welfare: The child welfare budget line contains a $2 million increase in state investments, which is significantly lower than increases in years past. This is likely due to underspending due to staffing shortages, and costs associated with the pandemic.

Home Visiting: Most home visiting programs received flat funding via the Community Based Family Center budget line and Nurse Family Partnership received a small decrease due to a change in the federal-matching rate. This is on par with what the governor proposed in February.

Pre-K: Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program (HSSAP) received a $2.7 million increase and Pre-K Counts (PKC) received a $15 million increase. The PKC increase is for reimbursement rates per child to increase from $10,000 per child for a full-day slot to $10,500. This is half of the governor’s proposed $30 million. The HSSAP increase of $2.7 million is what the governor proposed.

Health & Wellness

Mental Health: The budget provides $100 million mental health supports in school districts. Additionally, the budget provides a $20 million increase for county mental health services. Allies for Children will dive deeper into how this funding will impact schools in a future blog post.

Nutrition: Under the School Food Services line item, school meals received an increase of 6.3 million, about 10 million less than what the governor proposed for this item. Allies for Children will work to get a deeper understanding of the reasons this line item is lower than what the governor proposed.

Early Intervention: A $9.1 million increase for EI part C, the infant and toddler program through DHS. While this reflects the administration’s updated budget request, it does not address broader issues within the program, including worker shortages and a long-needed rate adjustment for providers. A $33 million increase for EI part B, the program for preschoolers (ages three to five) through PDE.

Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid: The CHIP program will receive a $4.1 million increase, which is well below the Governor’s proposed increase of $14.3 million. This increase will go toward ongoing insurance redetermination efforts that were spurred by the end of the Public Health Emergency. The Medical Assistance capitation line increase is $12.7 million, also due to the end of the PHE and the eligibility redetermination process which resulted in fewer Pennsylvanians on Medicaid.

Access to Feminine Hygiene Products: Led by First Lady Shapiro and supported bipartisanly, the budget provides $3 million to provide free menstrual hygiene products for all students in public schools.

Allies for Children continues to monitor details of funding essential children’s programs across Pennsylvania over the next fiscal year. To learn more about the State Budget process, take a look at these posts:

An Overview of the Budget Process
Thoughts on Gov. Shapiro’s Proposed 2024-25 Budget
Gov. Shapiro signs 2024-25 Pennsylvania budget, calls it a ‘major victory’ (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
Governor Shapiro signs $47 billion budget, $600 million in new education spending (WHP)
Senate Democratic Leaders Share Statement on Passing of FY24-25 Budget (Senate Democrats)
Senate Approves Empowering, Pro-Family, Pro-Growth Budget (Senate Republicans)