Washington’s prototypical school funding model
How the model works, step by step
1. Count students in FTE
The state counts students in FTE - full-time equivalent - which measures enrollment by how much school a student actually attends, not just how many bodies are counted. A student enrolled half-time counts as 0.5 FTE, not 1. It is also an annual average rather than a single snapshot: districts report enrollment on the first school day of every month, and the year's allocation follows that average.
2. Convert enrollment into model schools
Each grade span's funding FTE is divided by the size of its prototype. A district with 600 elementary FTE has 600 ÷ 400 = 1.5 prototypical elementary schools, and generates 1.5 times the elementary staffing below. This is arithmetic on grade levels, not a count of buildings - the seventh and eighth graders in a K-8 school generate middle school prototype money.
3. Generate a staffing allocation
Each model school generates classroom teachers at a funded class size, plus fractional positions for eleven other roles. Teachers are not simply enrollment divided by class size: the statute also funds the teachers needed to cover everyone else's planning period, which OSPI adds as 15.5% for K-6 and 20% for grades 7-12. The formula then adds a district-wide tier on top of the school tier.
4. Turn positions into dollars
Each funded position is priced at a statewide salary allocation - one rate for certificated instructional staff, one for administrators, one for classified staff - set by RCW 28A.150.410 and updated each year in the state budget. That figure is multiplied by the district's regionalization factor, an uplift set off local housing values that pays more per position where hiring costs more (RCW 28A.150.412). Benefits are added on top.
5. Add the money that is not staff
Materials, supplies and operating costs are paid per student rather than per position, and the programs for particular students - special education, learning assistance, bilingual instruction, highly capable - are layered on separately. None of those pass through the staffing step at all.
These are funding allocations, not a required staffing plan. Districts can organize schools differently, but must cover anything beyond the formula with other available revenue.
Two exceptions matter, because they are the places the formula does check. K-3 class size money is paid only in proportion to the class sizes a district can demonstrate it actually runs. And the money for nurses, counselors, social workers, psychologists, safety staff and family engagement staff is paid only in proportion to the staff a district actually employs in those roles.
The three prototypical schools
The model defines three school sizes. They are accounting constructs - no district is required to build a school of exactly this size.
| Prototype | Grades | Model size | Funded class size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary | K-6 | 400 students | 17 in K-3, 27 in grades 4-6 |
| Middle | 7-8 | 432 students | 28.53 in grades 7-8 |
| High school | 9-12 | 600 students | 28.74 in grades 9-12 |
Funded class sizes
These are the class sizes the state pays for. With the exception of K-3, they are not a legal cap on real classes - a district can run larger or smaller classes, and many do. They are also not the same as students per funded teacher, which is lower, because the formula pays for planning-period coverage on top.
| Grade band or subject | Funded class size | Note |
|---|---|---|
| K-3 | 17 | The smallest funded general education class, and the one band where running larger classes costs a district money. |
| Grades 4-6 | 27 | A single step up from the K-3 band. |
| Grades 7-8 | 28.53 | The middle school general education rate. |
| Grades 9-12 | 28.74 | The largest funded general education class size. |
| Career and technical education | 23 | Applies in middle school and high school alike, for courses OSPI has approved. |
| Laboratory science, grades 9-12 | 19.98 | An enhancement for two lab science classes per high school student, at a course factor of 0.0833. |
| Skill center programs | 19 | The smallest funded class in the formula. |
The staff each model school generates
Beyond classroom teachers, the statute funds eleven roles, stated as positions per prototypical school. A district generates its share of each in proportion to how many prototypes its enrollment adds up to.
| Role | Elementary | Middle | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principals | 1.253 | 1.353 | 1.88 |
| Paraeducators | 1.012 | 0.776 | 0.728 |
| Office staff | 2.088 | 2.401 | 3.345 |
| Custodians | 1.657 | 1.942 | 2.965 |
| Teacher-librarians | 0.663 | 0.519 | 0.523 |
| Counselors* | 0.993 | 1.716 | 3.039 |
| Nurses* | 0.585 | 0.888 | 0.824 |
| Social workers* | 0.311 | 0.088 | 0.127 |
| Psychologists* | 0.104 | 0.024 | 0.049 |
| Student-safety staff* | 0.079 | 0.092 | 0.141 |
| Parent involvement coordinators* | 0.0825 | 0 | 0 |
* Funded only in proportion to the staff a district can demonstrate it actually employs, under RCW 28A.150.260(5)(b).
The second tier: district-wide staff
The prototype tables generate staff for schools. The formula then generates a second layer that never passes through a model school at all, allocated per 1,000 K-12 students - and on top of that, central administration as a flat percentage of everything else. A district office is funded as a proportion of its schools.
| District-wide staff | Per 1,000 K-12 students |
|---|---|
| Facilities, maintenance and grounds | 1.813 |
| Technology | 0.628 |
| Warehouse, laborers and mechanics | 0.332 |
| Central administration | 5.30% of all other staff units |
Schools too small for the prototypes
The prototypes scale staff down with enrollment, which breaks for a very small school: a high school with 51 students would earn about two and a half teachers, too few to offer a high school's courses. So the state budget guarantees a minimum. A district qualifies if it has a high school with fewer than 300 students in grades 9-12, has 100 or fewer students in grades K-8, runs an isolated school OSPI has judged remote and necessary, or is a non-high district - one with no high school of its own - with 50 to 180 students. The budget sets each minimum in staff units - nine certificated instructional units and half an administrator for a small high school's first 60 students, for example - plus one classified unit for every 2.94 certificated ones, and pays whatever the prototypes fall short of it.
157 districts received these extra staff units in 2024-25: 629 certificated instructional, 34 administrative and 233 classified. Few next to a statewide workforce, but in the smallest districts they outnumber the certificated staff the prototypes generate. Pick a district on the home page to see its own small-school units beside its model schools.
Source: the 2024 supplemental operating budget, section 502(13), under RCW 28A.150.260(3)(a); district units from OSPI's 2024-25 apportionment.
Money for particular students
The same statute funds four programs driven by who a district's students are rather than how many there are. Three of them are built from the same machinery as everything above: hours per week of extra instruction, in classes of fifteen.
| Program | What drives it | What it funds |
|---|---|---|
| Learning assistance | Share of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals | 2.3975 hours a week of extra instruction, plus another 1.1 hours in schools above 50% eligibility |
| Transitional bilingual | Head count of enrolled eligible students - not FTE | 4.778 hours a week in K-6 and 6.778 in grades 7-12; students who exit keep 3.0 hours for two years |
| Highly capable | A flat 5% of each district's enrollment, however many students it identifies | 2.159 hours a week |
| Special education | Students with disabilities | A multiplier applied to everything above - see the special education page |
What the model generated statewide in 2024-25
Rolled up across every district, the basic education allocation the model drives came to $11.2B - 69% of the $16.2B the state sent districts in 2024-25. The rest is special education, transportation, the categorical programs and levy equalization. These four components are the whole of it.
54% of basic education
20% of basic education
13% of basic education
13% of basic education
The MSOC figure above is the general education line only. See MSOC funding for how the per-student rate is set and for the broader definition that also counts career and technical education and alternative learning, and see your own district's numbers in the District Explorer. The state is separately required to publish every district's per-student allocation, and each district must link to that report from its own homepage.
What the model leaves out
The prototypical model generates a state allocation. It is not the whole budget: local enrichment levies and federal programs fund positions and services on top of it, and the model does not attempt to describe those. Pupil transportation runs on its own formula in a different statute.
Not every number in the model is in the statute. RCW 28A.150.260 sets the prototype sizes, class sizes and staffing units; the salary allocations, the regionalization factors, the planning-time percentages, small-school minimums and the career and technical education amounts are set in the biennial appropriations act and can move without amending the statute.
The statutory parameters have moved several times. EHB 2242 (2017) restructured the salary allocations after McCleary, the 2012 state supreme court ruling that Washington was not amply funding basic education. 2SHB 1664 (2022) raised the counselor, nurse, social worker and psychologist allocations, finishing its phase-in for 2024-25, and 2SSB 5882 (2024) raised paraeducator and office-support staffing. Figures here reflect the statute as currently in effect - 2025 c 334, effective September 2025.
Statutory parameters: RCW 28A.150.260. Planning-time factors from OSPI's Organization and Financing of Washington's Public Schools. Every source is listed on Sources & Methodology.