Transparency
Who pays for Warwick’s schools.
The school budget is paid for mostly by city taxpayers, with state aid covering most of the rest. Here is how that split has moved since fiscal 2015.
School budget revenue by source
Audited actuals for fiscal 2015 through 2025; fiscal 2026 and 2027 are budgeted. Hover over or tap a year for the split.
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How much each source changed from the year before
Year-over-year change in the city’s contribution and in state and federal aid to the school budget.
Fiscal 2020’s city figure includes a one-time $1,901,601 to cover the fiscal 2019 deficit. That year the state also cut Warwick’s formula aid by $1,488,005 and counted the same amount of federal CARES Act relief (Warwick’s first ESSER allocation) in its place; the city’s audits record that federal grant as spent in fiscal 2021 and 2022. Fiscal 2018’s city figure is the amount the audit records as transferred ($120,951,080), about $1.5 million below the final appropriation of $122,482,464. Fiscal 2026 and 2027 are budgeted; the fiscal 2027 city figure is the mayor’s proposal.
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What changed the money
Federal pandemic relief, 2020 to 2024
Congress sent schools three rounds of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) money, plus smaller pandemic grants. These were separate grants, so they aren’t in the school budget chart above. In the line-by-line explorer, choose “Federal pandemic relief only” to see every line they paid for.
Spending by year
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What it paid for
Shares of ESSER spending by how the district coded it, fiscal 2021 to 2024. About 95% of the money is coded; staff includes salaries and benefits.
When it ran out
Warwick spent about half of its ESSER money in fiscal 2022. In its spring 2021 budget, the administration proposed using more of the third round in the first year than recommended, to keep staff cuts down (Warwick Beacon, April 2021). The city’s audits show no ESSER spending after June 30, 2024, three months before the final federal deadline to commit the money (city audit, fiscal 2025).
Presenting the fiscal 2025 budget, the finance director said about $6.2 million of expenses would need to move to the General Fund because of the loss of ESSER funding; the budget also cut 15 teaching positions (WarwickPost, April 2024). Salaries ran $4.8 million over budget in fiscal 2024, which the finance director attributed partly to the end of federal funding (WarwickPost, November 2024). In September 2025 the state-appointed Budget Commission found that grant-funded positions had not been accurately tracked and had been continued as grants approached expiration (WarwickPost, September 2025).
The district’s own accounting codes show relief-paid staff costs falling from about $8.1 million in fiscal 2022 to $1.9 million in 2023 and $0.8 million in 2024, so much of the shift may have happened before fiscal 2025. I haven’t found a position-by-position list that would settle it.
Every figure here comes from a public record: the district’s filings with the Rhode Island Department of Education, its general ledger and monthly reports to the School Committee, the city’s audited financial statements, and the budget documents the committee votes on. Figures are as reported and are not adjusted for inflation. If you find a mistake, email dan@herseyforwarwick.com and I’ll correct it and note the correction. Sources and method →