July 28, 2026 – The Duval County School Board took the next step in adopting the district's 2026-27 budget Tuesday evening, approving a tentative budget and millage rates that prioritize academic achievement, school safety, and teacher recruitment.
While budget discussions have been underway since the spring, the formal adoption process began in July. On July 21, the School Board completed the first required step by approving the advertisements, taxpayer awareness notices, and public hearings required under Florida's Truth in Millage statutes.
Tuesday's vote marks the second step in the process. The School Board is scheduled to adopt the final budget and millage rates on Sept. 10, 2026. As always, Board meetings are open to the public and can also be viewed via our Board Meeting Livestream.
The following priorities guided the development of the final budget:
Improving academic and literacy outcomes through increased investments in supplemental reading and mathematics materials.
School safety and maintaining the district's commitment to its partnership with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in implementing the School Safety Assistant program.
Improving teacher allocation ratios to make it easier for schools to receive new teaching positions.
Maintaining the district's commitment to school choice through strong magnet school transportation.
Fiscal responsibility, savings, and the continued regrowth of fund balances.
Budgeting a $10 million increase in average salaries in the prior year.
A yearlong review and reduction of non-essential expenditures.
The tentative budget and millage rates approved by the Board are available to view on the district’s website. Below are a few key highlights about this year’s budget and the budget process.
Overall operating revenues for Duval County Public Schools are budgeted to decrease by 4.5%, or $15 million, to a total of $3.4 billion. This funding comes from three sources: federal, state, and local.
Funding from federal sources — expected to decrease by $17 million — primarily funds:
Title I, which provides supplementary assistance to schools serving large populations of low-income students.
Programs for exceptional education students.
The National School Lunch Program.
Funding from state appropriations — expected to increase by $647 thousand, or less than 1% — comes in two forms: discretionary and categorical.
Discretionary funding — funding under the full control of the district and the Duval County School Board — increased about 2% to $945 million. The increased discretionary revenue is expected to support additional expenditures on instructional services at schools and districtwide support services. The district has broad latitude in how it can spend state discretionary funding. This type of funding, combined with local revenue, pays for normal school operations such as most teacher salaries and benefits, curriculum materials and supplies, school leadership, and district leadership.
Categorical funding can only be used for purposes mandated by state law. It cannot be used for operational expenses or school facilities. For example, funding for mental health services is categorical and can only be used for mental health services. Categorical funding increased by about $574,000 to a total of $206 million. Major changes include an increase in funding for Safe Schools to $15.4 million, an increase in the Mental Health Assistance Allocation to $8.1 million, and an increase in Educational Enrichment funding to $41 million.
Much of the categorical and discretionary funding is based on full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment. Most students account for one FTE. Some students, such as exceptional education students, count for more than one FTE. For 2026-27, Duval County Public Schools is funded for 134,818 weighted FTE. The number of funded weighted FTE for Duval decreased by 134 compared to last year.
Funding from local property taxes at the rate set by the state (known as the Required Local Effort) will generate $11 million in additional revenue compared to last year, for a total of $386 million — an increase of 3%.
Funding for the repair, renovation, and construction of new schools comes mostly from a different funding source called Local Capital Improvement. It is a property tax assessment that will remain at 1.5 mills, the same level it has been since 2010. In 2009, it was 1.75 mills, and in 2008, it was 2.0 mills. The state Legislature sets this funding level. This levy will generate $192 million in revenue for these projects.
Learn more about the school budget process by watching our recent Budget 101 Community Meeting.