Where these numbers come from.

FY2026 and FY2027 General Fund status reports (October 1, 2026). The finance office’s reports to the School Committee for its October 13, 2026 meeting: fiscal 2026 by line, preliminary and before year-end adjustments, and fiscal 2027 to date (the district posted a corrected copy, which is the one used here), plus the fiscal 2027 budget amendments and the accounts-receivable aging report. Every School Committee agenda links to a public folder with that meeting’s packet; the September 2, 2026 reports used here before are in the September 10 meeting’s folder.

FY2027 adopted General Fund budget. The School Committee’s adopted $203,874,517 budget for fiscal 2027, by accounting line, posted on the district’s Budget Information page.

RIDE Uniform Chart of Accounts. Every expenditure line each district reports to the state for fiscal 2017 through 2024, with location, function, program, subject, object and job class.

Warwick Public Schools general ledger, FY2025. The year-end trial balance behind the Budget Commission’s five-year plan, published with the plan (86,995 accounts). The health self-insurance fund is left out so premiums aren’t counted twice.

FY2026 Superintendent’s Recommended Budget (April 16, 2025). A three-year worksheet by accounting line (fiscal 2023 and 2024 actuals, the fiscal 2025 budget and the fiscal 2026 request) and 1,373 non-salary requests with written justifications.

City of Warwick audited financial statements, FY2015–FY2025. The budget-to-actual schedule for the school unrestricted fund, the fund balance, and the state transparency schedule.

RIDE per-pupil expenditure reports, FY2017–FY2025. Official spending per student and average daily membership for every district.

RIDE enacted education aid, FY2017–FY2027. State formula aid to Warwick and its neighbors.

RIDE report card data files. Teacher counts and school-level per-pupil figures.

City of Warwick budget books and Budget Commission records. City appropriations, the fiscal 2027 proposal, and the commission’s record from April 2025 to April 2026.

City of Warwick single audits, FY2020–FY2024. Federal grant spending by year, including every round of pandemic relief, from the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.

RIDE final ESSER allocations to districts (November 2022). The final amounts of each round of federal pandemic relief allocated to every Rhode Island district.

House and Senate fiscal office education aid reports. How the state funding formula, high-cost special education aid and other categories changed each year, and what they paid.

RIDE enrollment data. October 1 enrollment by district and school, used for the enrollment events. The 2024-25 count of students with disabilities is from RIDE’s report card enrollment file.

Rhode Island General Laws and federal statutes. The text of each requirement in the requirements section of the overview is linked from that requirement.

News coverage. For decisions that aren’t in a financial document, such as contract terms and budget votes, the events list links to the WarwickPost, Warwick Beacon or WJAR story it relies on.

School Committee agendas and minutes. Filed with the Secretary of State’s Open Meetings portal.

How the categories work. Every line carries the state’s function code (what the money is for) and object code (what it buys). These pages group the state’s 34 function codes into about 30 plain-English purposes and five broad areas, and the object codes into 15 kinds of spending. The original codes are always one click away in the explorer.

What counts. All funds: the General Fund (the school budget the city approves), federal and state grants, the lunch program and student activity accounts. Choose “School budget only” in the explorer to see just the General Fund. Capital projects paid through city bonds, such as the two new high schools, aren’t in the district’s accounts.

Preliminary and final numbers. Fiscal 2026 figures come from the district’s October 1, 2026 report, which the district labels not final until year-end adjusting entries are booked and the city’s auditors finish. They have already moved once: the September 2 report showed a $2.27 million shortfall and the October 1 report shows $1.33 million. They will change again, and these pages will be updated when the audit is out.

Why totals differ slightly. RIDE’s per-pupil reports and the line totals here match within 1 percent each year. The audited budget-basis totals differ a little from RIDE’s General Fund totals because of year-end accruals and the state’s on-behalf pension payments.

Two deficit figures. The city’s audit puts the fiscal 2025 school deficit at $5,578,008. The Budget Commission’s five-year plan, adopted before the audit was final, used a projection of $5,766,101. These pages use the audited figure for fiscal 2025 results and the plan’s own numbers when describing the plan.

Per student. Every per-student figure divides by RIDE’s average daily membership for that year (7,803 in fiscal 2025), the same count the state uses.

Federal pandemic relief. Grant lines coded to the federal relief funds (ESSER I, II and III, the CARES Act relief fund, and the American Rescue Plan and FCC pandemic grants) are tagged so the explorer can show them separately or leave them out. The coded lines come to about 95% of what the audits report, so the audited figures are used for totals.

Requirements and mandates. A requirement is shown only if the law can be cited and Warwick’s cost is documented. Items marked “estimate” are calculations, and each one states its method. The items overlap, so they are not added together.

Events. Events are limited to decisions or outside changes with a documented effect on what the schools spent or received. Contract terms are from news reports and, for 2017–2020, the salary schedule WarwickPost published from the contract.

Job titles. Pay lines carry a state job class, so you can see teacher, aide, custodian and administrator pay, but not individual positions or head counts.