NHDOE announces adequate education grant estimates for FY23

CONCORD, NH — On Monday, the New Hampshire Department of Education published its fiscal year 2023 adequate education grant estimates, which will assist school districts with their upcoming budget plans. 

The total estimates for adequacy aid, plus the Statewide Education Property Tax, is estimated at $954,654,751. This is approximately $32 million more than last year’s figure, which was later increased by the Governor and legislature with an additional $65 million in one-time education funding. 

These new estimates are calculated using enrollment counts submitted to NHDOE for the current school year. There are now 159,334 students enrolled in New Hampshire’s public schools, compared to 160,715 in 2020-2021 and 167,284 in 2019-2020. Adequacy aid is based on the average daily membership of resident students. This is the first time enrollment has dipped below 160,000 from a peak number of 203,715 students in 2002-2003.

“We continue to see a demographic decline in enrollment numbers,” said Frank Edelblut, commissioner of education. “Following the disruptions of COVID-19 and various setbacks, enrollment declines have been experienced nationwide. While many of our students have returned after a 2020 pandemic hiatus, we continue to see COVID-related declines in enrollment. However, since schools are now fully reopened in New Hampshire, I anticipate this number will slowly begin to advance upward, especially as efforts continue to be made to connect and engage with families.” 

With enrollment data now updated, Manchester continues to be the largest school district with 12,163 students, followed by Nashua with 9,917 students, Derry with 4,550 students and Bedford with 4,123 students. 

The state legislature passed a law that allows the state to modify the free and reduced lunch calculation in its adequacy formula, which have been impacted by federal waivers. This modification resulted in about $16.6 million in additional school funding and is included in the adequacy aid detailed above. 

A more detailed analysis of the education grant estimates is available at /sites/g/files/ehbemt326/files/inline-documents/sonh/adequacy-fy23-muni-estimate-summary.pdf.

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