By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Kentucky residents can now see how much schools spend per student and other financial expenditures with a new update of the Kentucky Department of Education’s School Report Card, which was released on Thursday.
The information contained in the financial transparency section of the School Report Card is from the 2023-2024 school year. It includes data on funding, grants, spending and taxes for each school district, as well as school-level spending per student. The financial data is released later than the rest of the School Report Card domains to allow districts to use audited financial information in their calculations, which promotes greater accuracy of the district financial data.
School-level spending per student data is calculated by district staff; specific school-level questions regarding this data should be directed to districts.
According to the Kentucky Department of Education, data alone cannot fully explain the financial situation of a district, so a financial narrative was once again included on the Financial Summary tab of the report card. This optional short narrative – 750 characters – gives parents, community members and researchers a better understanding of the district’s financial picture.
You can view the information on a statewide basis, but in addition it is also broken down by each of the 171 public school districts in Kentucky, as well as by the 1,487 individual schools. The data contains nine separate categories. They include accountability, academic performance, career and technical education, educational opportunity, school safety, transition to adult life and financial transparency, as well as an overview and organization information. It also includes a glossary, which explains what terms mean that are used in education.
Due to a new School Report Card vendor, the visualizations and navigation may be slightly different than in the past, but all data remains consistent, including datasets that are available to compare districts.