An Overview of Oregon’s State Funding Allocation

In Oregon, state and local revenues are pooled together and redistributed to school districts based on a funding formula. Approximately 60% of the total education budget comes from the state’s share, making it a critical revenue source for most districts. The State School Fund (SSF) allocates lump-sum funding to districts based on the number of resident students, adjusted for differential needs as specified by the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS 327.008). Students with disabilities are double-weighted in the funding formula, with districts guaranteed double-weighted funding for up to 11% of their student population. Other student groups, such as students classified as English Language Learners or those qualifying for Free-or-reduced price lunch are also proportionately weighted in the formula. While state allocations are tied to student demographics, districts have the flexibility to use these revenues as they see fit.

Another state fiscal policy to support students with disabilities is the High-Cost Disability Fund, which reimburses districts for expenses exceeding $30,000 per special education student (the cap was at $25,000 from 2003-2005). Each year, a portion of the SSF, amounting to less than 5% of the total appropriation, is designated for this fund. If statewide claims exceed the available funds, reimbursements are prorated across districts.

In this analysis, I will describe descriptive trends in district enrollment, districts’ state-funding allocation, district revenue, and district expenditure related to students with disabilities whose services cost more than a given threshold and are paid by the grant called High-Cost Disability Fund.

District ADM Data

District-level allocations from the State School Fund (SSF), disaggregated by student type, covering the years 2011–2024.

Trends in Enrollment

An average Oregon school districts’ enrollment is around 2800 students- which remains pretty stable across the years. However, there is substantial variation in enrollment between districts.

State Trends for Subgroup Enrollment

The three biggest groups are students under poverty, students served in special education and in English language programs.

In 2011, about 16% of the all students were under poverty, 14% of all students were in special education programs and 9% of students were in the ESL programs. In 2024, students served in special education was the biggest group at 15% followed by students under poverty and students in ELP at around 12%. About 1% of the students are in other programs.

District Trends for Subgroup Enrollment

Next, we look at the trends percentage of subgroup representation across districts over time.

Students in special education (IEP or students with an Individualized Education Plans) and English language programs have been steadily growing over the years, and those classified in poverty are steadily decreasing, but there is plenty of between-district variation.

Between 0 to 3% of students were classified as HCD (eligible for High Cost Disability Fund) between districts between 2018 to 2022.

Relationship between Districts Total Enrollment and Subgroup Enrollment

For students with an IEP and student in poverty, there is variation in proportion of the subgroup relative to the school enrollment. However, the average sub-group representation by quintiles of school enrollment appears even, at between 12-16%. A handful of school districts with an enrollment of around 10 students served no special education students in their districts in 2022. Some of the low-enrollment schools have high representation of students in poverty.

Students in ESL programs, and those in foster care or neglected/delinquent, pregnant and parenting programs, and those eligible for reimbursements from the high-cost disability funds are more concentrated in bigger schools.

District Funds Allocation Data

I define allocation ratio as the ratio of weighted average daily membership to the real average daily membership. Since students with some characteristics are weighted more than 1 per the state formula, a district gets resources as if there were more students in the school. So, an allocation ratio of 2 means that districts get 2 student equivalent for every 1 real student in their district.

Students in smaller school districts get more per-student revenue allocated (in student units) than students in larger districts. In the first enrollment quintile, school districts get about 4 student equivalent for each of their student. In the second quintile, school districts get about 2 student equivalent for each of their student. In larger districts, school districts get 1.3 student equivalent for each of their student.

Revenue Data

State Trends in Per-pupil revenue

School districts had an average total revenue of 18 billion dollars for the four years I had publically-available data. Of the total revenue, between 28-33% came from State resources, 23-25% came from local resources, and 35-40% came from Other resources. Intermediate and federal resources accounted for the remaining.

Almost all of state revenue is allocated using the SSF. Local revenue could be tax levies etc. The biggest contributor to Other resources are districts’ account balance from previous years – thus, districts saved substantial money from past years. The decrease in other sourcecs over the 4 years could be related to using emergency resources in response to COVID-19 related disruptions.

If we remove the other sources and only consider the new money districts get, about 50% comes from state resources and 40 percent come from local resources. Between 6 to 10% percent come from federal sources.

Trends in Per-pupil revenue by Districts based on sources

The average per-pupul revenue from all sources, except intermediate, went up from 2019 to 2022. Although the most dramatic increase in revenue was from federal sources, which went up about three times between 2019 to 2021. Revenue from local and intermediate sources remained more consistent over time.

Trends in Revenue by District Enrollment

Districts with smaller enrollment have a much higher per-pupil revenue from all sources compared to big districts. The most dramatic difference is in per-pupil revenue by other sources.

HCD Population

Students eligible for HCD and Grant Amount

The number of students identified as eligible for ‘High Cost Disability Fund’ have doubled from 2003 to 2022, or from 0.5% of the enrollment in 2003 to 1% in 2022. The grant money has also increased in phases. The drop in the number of students eligible for HCD in 2005 is because the eligibility threshold for expenditure increased from 25k to 30k in 2005.

Students eligible for HCD and Per-pupil expenditure above threshold

Per-pupil expenditure over the threshold was 9000 in 2003 and was 25000 in 2022.

Per-pupil reimbursment and Per-pupil expenditure above threshold

Reimbursement hasn’t increases as much as the expenses. The gap in per-student expenditure vs reimbursement was $3k in 2003 and it was 15k in 2022.