One of the legislature's goals is to provide the necessary funding for K-12 schools. The Chapter 70 education aid formula is used to determine how much aid each district actually needs to meet these standards.

The Student Opportunity Act (SAO), signed into law in 2019, made an unprecedented investment in Massachusetts public education and updated the Chapter 70 formula so that public schools have adequate resources to provide a high-quality education to students across the state, regardless of zip code or income level. 

The Chapter 70 formula can be broken down into 3 steps:

1. Calculate the Foundation Budget

First, the cost of providing education to students in a district is determined. The SAO updated the foundation budget. A unique foundation budget is created for each district specifying the minimum level of education spending required to adequately educate the district’s students.

2. Determine the Required Local Contribution

After the foundation budget is determined, the state needs to calculate how much an individual community can contribute towards their foundation amount. This amount is based on the property wealth and income levels of the community. 

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3. Fill in the Gap with Chapter 70 State Education Aid

Next, the state determines the difference between the “required local contribution” and the foundation budget. State Chapter 70 aid is then allocated to make up that difference. The SAO will provide an estimated $1.4 billion in new Chapter 70 aid when fully implemented over the next seven years.

For more information about Chapter 70 and the SAO, click here.

Another program that aids districts in their budgets is Chapter 90. Chapter 90 is a program that provides districts with state aid for road repairs and road maintenance. The money received from this program helps districts with roadway projects in order to keep infrastructure clean, safe and in good repair.

For more information on Chapter 90, click here.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority aids communities in designing and receiving reimbursements for various school development projects. 

An example of their effect on Malden was their assistance in getting the city reimbursements for the renovation of Malden High School.

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For more information about MSBA, click here.

Cities can use UGGA to fund any services in their budgets that need additional revenue in order to run. Examples include recreation departments, school funding, libraries, and any other type of city spending. Unlike Chapter 70, UGGA does not have its own formula but was determined by revenue from local property taxes in the past. 

For more information on UGGA, click here.

There are two types of state aid that help public school districts pay the tuition for students attending Commonwealth Charter Schools; Chapter 46 and facilities aid. Chapter 46, also known as Transition aid, is a formula designed to generate the greatest amount of aid when there is a significant shift in enrollment in charter schools. 

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Since charter schools are not eligible for state financing for school construction, Facilities Aid offsets the entire cost of facilities per student. 
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You can find more information on Charter School Tuition Reimbursements here.

State law requires public school districts to provide an adequate education for all students, including students with disabilities. When a student's needs can't be met in the public school setting, the school district pays to send the student to a more appropriate placement at a specialized school. The state's special education circuit breaker program partially reimburses schools for those costs at a percentage rate (usually between 35% and 75%, depending on funding levels that year) for special education tuition that exceeds four times the average per-pupil tuition.