BOCES Educational Consortia meeting highlights budget, legislative achievements

Three people sitting at a table with microphones to speak. Their faces and titles are on a presentation screen off to the side and behind them.

At NYSSBA’s annual conference in New York City on Oct. 23, 2025, BOCES board members and district superintendents from around the state attended the annual meeting to learn more about the budget and legislative achievements from the BOCES of New York State in 2025.

BOCES of NYS legislative consultant Julie Marlette from Hinman Straub provided a recap of the 2024 legislative session, and the budget and legislative achievements were shared:

School Aid

In 2025, the BOCES of New York State urged the lawmakers to provide adequate funding for both school districts and BOCES, and to commit to a funding formula that is stable and predictable over time. This year the state adopted the following changes:

Updates to datasets, including:

      • Replacing the census poverty factor with a three-year average of the small area income and poverty estimates (SAIPE) count.
      • Replacing the free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL) counts with a three-year average of the economically disadvantaged count.
      • Amending the calculation of the “extraordinary needs count” to increase the English Language Learner weight from 0.5 to 0.53 starting in the 2025-26 school year.
      • Modifying one of four Foundation Aid State Sharing Ratio (FASSR) tiers and increasing the maximum FASSR from 0.91 to 0.93.
      • Amending the calculator for the Foundation Aid for districts with a combined wealth ratio (FACWR) of 0.616.

The state also fully funded expense based aids such as building aid, transportation aid, and BOCES aid.

Modernize BOCES Aid

More than 30 years after adoption, and decades of advocating for change, the formula for calculating BOCES aid has been updated. Beginning with programs offered in the 2025-26 school year (with aid payments starting in 2026-27), the state will begin phasing in a new aidable salary threshold. The aidable salary increase will be $10,000 in each of the next three years. Once fully implemented, up to $60,000 in salary will be eligible for calculating BOCES aid. A comparable increase in special services aid was also adopted.

Address Critical Workforce Shortages

BOCES of New York State called on the State to take meaningful action to address the ongoing workforce shortages affecting schools across the state. In response, the legislature approved, and the Governor signed into law, a two-year extension of the retiree income waiver. This waiver allows school districts and BOCES to continue employing public sector retirees without income limitations through the end of the 2026-27 school year.

Support Transition to Zero-Emission Buses

BOCES of New York State urged the state to adopt changes to the zero-emission bus transition plan to address barriers beyond the control of school districts. While our specific recommendations were not adopted, the state enacted several important adjustments:

      • NYSED now has broader authority to issue waivers, allowing delays of up to four years beyond the 2027 deadline for purchasing or leasing zero-emissions buses.
      • School buses sold or leased in New York State are now required to have independent range estimates.
      • Implementation of the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) regulations has been delayed.
      • An additional $100 million has been allocated to support the transition to zero-emissions school buses.

Marlette was joined by Brian Fessler from NYSSBA and Bob Lowry from NYSCOSS to discuss upcoming education-related legislation that could impact BOCES, schools and education in New York in 2026.