Expenditures by program group

What this dataset measures

Built to check a widely shared claim that Seattle Public Schools' budget rose 96% from 2014 to 2025 while enrollment stayed near 48,500. Uses the state's year-end financial records (F-196) for every district so Seattle and the statewide total are measured the same way.

Geography

Seattle, Washington, Washington

Unit of observation

School district and school year

Update cadence

Annual, after OSPI posts F-196 data (December)

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Expenditures by program group

Long format: school year, program group, amount.

Unit of observation: School year x program group

seattle-schools-budget-by-program.csv text/csv · 5.4 KB (5,516 bytes)

The first 100 of 108 rows 3 columns Download the full file

The first 100 of 108 rows

school_year	program_group	amount US dollars
2013-14	Basic education	293154222.49
2014-15	Basic education	310071397.50
2015-16	Basic education	332752712.08
2016-17	Basic education	361250575.24
2017-18	Basic education	386522296.84
2018-19	Basic education	430587551.82
2019-20	Basic education	457820864.26
2020-21	Basic education	463926573.74
2021-22	Basic education	467035230.00
2022-23	Basic education	496355209.01
2023-24	Basic education	475654431.28
2024-25	Basic education	500675715.03
2013-14	Career, technical and skills centers	9746366.90
2014-15	Career, technical and skills centers	10234318.23
2015-16	Career, technical and skills centers	11141811.84
2016-17	Career, technical and skills centers	11062629.13
2017-18	Career, technical and skills centers	12720225.81
2018-19	Career, technical and skills centers	14898180.16
2019-20	Career, technical and skills centers	16350730.86
2020-21	Career, technical and skills centers	16951641.65
2021-22	Career, technical and skills centers	19428496.78
2022-23	Career, technical and skills centers	22083339.51
2023-24	Career, technical and skills centers	23390783.56
2024-25	Career, technical and skills centers	28755001.40
2013-14	Districtwide support	90832985.40
2014-15	Districtwide support	97145134.26
2015-16	Districtwide support	101623322.39
2016-17	Districtwide support	104034311.85
2017-18	Districtwide support	113003230.23
2018-19	Districtwide support	120641588.25
2019-20	Districtwide support	127754263.09
2020-21	Districtwide support	109119850.46
2021-22	Districtwide support	136471036.51
2022-23	Districtwide support	152734369.38
2023-24	Districtwide support	155347957.14
2024-25	Districtwide support	157338052.32
2013-14	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	55481568.34
2014-15	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	58384616.16
2015-16	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	62080071.43
2016-17	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	62437901.53
2017-18	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	64042581.04
2018-19	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	72056075.33
2019-20	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	74424206.69
2020-21	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	74830011.39
2021-22	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	78511531.02
2022-23	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	86342938.39
2023-24	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	87396619.25
2024-25	Extra help for low-income students, English learners and others	95709326.53
2013-14	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	106316.93
2014-15	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	8887.21
2015-16	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	0.00
2016-17	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	0.00
2017-18	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	0.00
2018-19	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	0.00
2019-20	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	0.00
2020-21	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	47457176.33
2021-22	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	64643467.07
2022-23	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	24801379.94
2023-24	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	15419961.13
2024-25	Federal pandemic relief (ESSER and CARES)	21047.01
2013-14	Other instruction and community programs	29197880.68
2014-15	Other instruction and community programs	32470184.90
2015-16	Other instruction and community programs	36255108.63
2016-17	Other instruction and community programs	33793844.61
2017-18	Other instruction and community programs	40135097.80
2018-19	Other instruction and community programs	46406552.80
2019-20	Other instruction and community programs	45233663.92
2020-21	Other instruction and community programs	38352278.53
2021-22	Other instruction and community programs	42649345.08
2022-23	Other instruction and community programs	50089845.34
2023-24	Other instruction and community programs	55434528.49
2024-25	Other instruction and community programs	56975270.07
2013-14	School food	13100322.06
2014-15	School food	13196877.30
2015-16	School food	13994887.42
2016-17	School food	14420816.89
2017-18	School food	14459978.01
2018-19	School food	14615568.14
2019-20	School food	15745945.03
2020-21	School food	16776690.30
2021-22	School food	20064754.52
2022-23	School food	18158820.66
2023-24	School food	19513225.40
2024-25	School food	20515334.04
2013-14	Special education	85889853.66
2014-15	Special education	95618116.04
2015-16	Special education	119530820.38
2016-17	Special education	130306578.55
2017-18	Special education	146087773.00
2018-19	Special education	172013985.11
2019-20	Special education	185488039.16
2020-21	Special education	185446289.21
2021-22	Special education	186809860.94
2022-23	Special education	208589462.88
2023-24	Special education	243490163.11
2024-25	Special education	272339063.19
2013-14	Student transportation	34173266.51
2014-15	Student transportation	30937085.86
2015-16	Student transportation	33228956.54
2016-17	Student transportation	34850266.92

3 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
school_year	string	School year		observed
program_group	string	Program group (see analysis growth-by-program for codes)		derived
amount	number	General fund expenditures	US dollars	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• seattle-schools-budget-dataset-parts.json Documentation · application/json · 40.7 KB (41,667 bytes)

  Machine-readable sources, table definitions, events, saved analyses and the attributed statement for this dataset version.

Sources

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 and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Every figure comes from public OSPI files, SPS budget books, BLS and BEA. Sum the F-196 general fund rows for district 17001 by year (or read the OSPI 10-year workbook), divide by OSPI's per-pupil enrollment, and deflate with the September-August average of the Seattle CPI-U.

• General fund only; capital and debt-service funds are excluded.
• 2013-14 kindergarten FTE was counted mostly at half-day, which understates 2013-14 enrollment relative to later years.
• Price indexes measure consumer or government prices broadly, not school costs specifically.
• Budget-year figures (2025-26, 2026-27) can change at year end.