Where Seattle schools' added spending went, 2013-14 to 2024-25

What this chart asks

Which programs account for the $584 million increase in Seattle Public Schools' general fund spending?

Why it is shown this way

• Bars compare the dollar increase of each program group; the groups are ordered from largest to smallest increase in the dataset.

Data and accessibility

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Dataset seattle-schools-spending-enrollment, analysis growth-by-program

Sources

This chart draws on the sources of the dataset versions it visualizes.

Seattle Public Schools spending and enrollment, 2013-14 to 2024-25

1. Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Annual school district financial statements (F-196): general fund expenditures by program and object, revenues by source, and the enrollment OSPI uses for per-pupil figures. 10-year workbook (https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2025-12/10_year_f-196_data_2024-25.xlsx) for 2014-15 to 2024-25; 2013-14 and detail rows from the SAFS F-196 data files (https://ospi.k12.wa.us/safs-data-files).

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington State public record. Public government data; derived tables redistributed with attribution.

   Reliability: Government. OSPI compiles the year-end financial statements every Washington school district must file (form F-196). Figures are as reported by the district; OSPI publishes them without audit adjustment.

2. OSPI Financial Reporting Summary, Section One Statewide general fund expenditures and per-pupil spending by year, 2014-15 to 2024-25 (2013-14 from the 2022-23 edition: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2023-12/2022-23_section_one_statewideaveragefinancialtablesandcharts.pdf).

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington State public record. Public government document.

   Reliability: Government. OSPI summary of all districts' F-196 reports; used here for the statewide comparison. Its per-pupil enrollment counts K-12 FTE plus some special-education and institutional students.

3. OSPI Report Card enrollment (data.wa.gov) October headcount by grade for Seattle School District No. 1, 2014-15 to 2024-25; 2025-26 from https://data.wa.gov/d/wvqy-yp3m.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington State open data. Public open data.

   Reliability: Government. Headcount of students enrolled on the October count date, as districts report it to OSPI. Earliest year in this series is 2014-15.

4. Seattle Public Schools 2026-27 Budget Book 2024-25 actual and 2025-26 and 2026-27 budgeted general fund totals; K-12 AAFTE 2022-23 to 2026-27; fund balance outlook.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record. Public document; figures quoted with attribution.

   Reliability: Party to the dispute. The district's own adopted budget. SPS argues the state underfunds it, but these figures are its audited actuals and adopted budgets, which match OSPI's records.

5. Seattle Public Schools Adopted Budget 2015-2016 (copy) 2013-14 actual general fund summary (F-195 format) and 2013-14 actual K-12 AAFTE.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record. Public document; figures quoted with attribution.

   Reliability: Party to the dispute. SPS no longer posts this book on its site; this copy is kept by a parent-run data project. Its 2013-14 totals match OSPI's F-196 records to the dollar.

6. Seattle Public Schools Adopted Budget 2016-2017 (copy) K-12 AAFTE 2012-13 to 2014-15 with kindergarten shown at half-day and state-funded full-day kindergarten separately.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record. Public document; figures quoted with attribution.

   Reliability: Party to the dispute. District budget book copy kept by a parent-run data project; AAFTE figures are from OSPI report 1251.

7. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue CPI-U (CUURS49DSA0, bimonthly) and U.S. city average CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), averaged over each September-August school year.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain.

   Reliability: Government. Official consumer price index. The Seattle index is published for even months only.

8. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis via FRED Implicit price deflator for state and local government consumption and investment (quarterly), averaged Q3 to Q2 for each school year; used as a sensitivity check.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain.

   Reliability: Government. National index of the prices state and local governments pay, dominated by employee compensation; not specific to Washington or schools.

9. @PNWConservative on X The post rated in the companion fact check.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Quoted for commentary. Quotation only.

   Reliability: Advocacy group. Has a stake in this finding. Anonymous political account; the post argues for Initiative 645.

Limitations

• Actual dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
• Program groups are FactHub's grouping of OSPI program codes; see the dataset for the codes in each group.
• Federal pandemic relief does not appear because it was spent from 2020-21 to 2023-24 and was zero in both end years.